ns just described determine the healthfulness of
the country, and this is a matter of so much moment, especially to those
who think of settling in South Africa, that I take the earliest
opportunity of referring to it.

The sun-heat would make the climate very trying to Europeans, and of
course more trying the farther north toward the Equator they live, were
it not for the two redeeming points I have dwelt on--the elevation and
the dryness of the interior. To be 3000, 4000, or 5000 feet above the
sea is for most purposes the same thing as being in a more temperate
latitude, and more than five-sixths in area of the districts which are
now inhabited by Europeans have an elevation of fully 3000 feet. Not
merely the tablelands of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, but
also by far the larger part of Cape Colony and nearly the whole of Natal
(excluding a small strip along the coast), attain this elevation. Thus
even in summer, when the heat is great during the day, the coolness of
the night refreshes the system. The practical test of night temperature
is whether one wishes for a blanket to sleep under. In Madras and Bombay
all the year round, in New York through several months of summer, in
Paris or sometimes even in London for a few days in July or August, a
light blanket is oppressive, and the continuance of the high day
temperature through the hours of darkness exhausts and enfeebles all but
vigorous constitutions. But in South Africa it is only along the coast,
in places like Durban, Delagoa Bay, or Beira, that one feels inclined to
dispense with a woollen covering at night, while in Johannesburg or
Bloemfontein a good thick blanket is none too much even in November,
before the cooling rains begin, or in December, when the days are
longest. In fact, the fall of temperature at sunset is often a source of
risk to those who, coming straight from Europe, have not yet learned to
guard against sudden changes, for it causes chills which, if they find a
weak organ to pounce upon, may produce serious illness. These rapid
variations of temperature are not confined to the passage from day to
night. Sometimes in the midst of a run of the usual warm, brilliant
weather of the dry season there will come a cold, bitter south east
wind, covering the sky with gray clouds and driving the traveller to put
on every wrap he possesses. I remember, toward the end of October, such
a sudden "cold snap" in Matabililand, only twenty degrees from