From the tropical Zambesi regions and the torrid Kalahari plains, down to
the 34th parallel at Cape point, a great diversity of climatic conditions is
met with. To the north and north-east are the steaming, death-breeding low
lands, abounding with dank virgin forests and scrubby stretches; and to the
north-west extend the arid, sandy, and stony levels. There are the temperate
and fruitful inland reaches along the southern and south-eastern littoral,
and again further inward the vast plateaux at 2,000 to 6,500 feet elevation,
which represent nearly one-half of the sub-continent with quite other
climatic aspects. In the southern and western provinces of the Cape Colony
the rainy season occurs during the winter months, probably because of the
proximity to the trade wind influences prevailing over the South Atlantic;
over the rest of South Africa the winters are dry and sunny, the rains
falling in summer, most copiously in December and January, the effect being
that there are hardly any winter rigours, and the heat of summer is
minimised. The most agreeable climate is that on the higher plateau levels:
never hot nor altogether cold, and yet virile and bracing; something like
the climate on sunny days found in the higher Alpine regions in summer and
in the mild Algerine winters. This climate is found from the Queenstown
district at about 3,000 feet elevation, extending north and westwards over
the Stormberg, the Orange Free State, and along the lordly Drakensberg range
and its spurs some 200 to 300 miles into the Transvaal, where the highest
plateau levels occur between Ermelo and to near Lydenburg, viz., 6,500 feet.
The Harrismith district near that mountain range is at a similar altitude
with an identical climate.
These high tracts are called hoogeveldt or highlands. Their altitude rises
steadily with the advance northwards towards warmer latitudes, and with the
compensating effect that the climate in the Queenstown district, Bontebok
Flats for example, at 3,000 feet elevation, is exactly similar to that in
the eastern portions of the Orange Free State at 5,500 feet, right up to
near Lydenburg at 6,500 feet altitude, and being some six degrees further
north than Queenstown. The northern half of Natal also partakes of that
character, though there, as well as over the rest of the eastern slopes of
the Drakensberg mountains, the country is more broken and hilly than on the
western side. The Cape Colonial high veldt near the Drakensberg range is
intersected by high continuations or spurs, but north and westwards those
plateaux assume more the real aspect of continuous high plains. There is a
gradual descent to the west; from occasional hilly ranges those dwindle to
kopjes, and to still less elevated "randjes" occurring in clusters more and
more apart, until yet further westwards one gets to the merely undulating
sterile approaches of the Karoo and the plains around and beyond Kimberley,
which merge at last in the still lower Kalahara desert.
Within 200 or 300 miles from the Drakensberg slopes the country is
well-watered, and the rainfall ample and generally regular, but westwards
this abundance progressively decreases with a more tardy and precarious
rainy season, occasioning at times severe droughts accompanied with
correspondingly protracted and very hot weather.
Those high plains make up one vast green sward from the time of the spring
rains in September to April. From May the absence of rain, together with the
night frosts, shrivel up the herbage, giving the country a pale-brown
aspect. This continues until the return of spring, varied with large
expanses of black, caused by accidental or intentional grass fires, and here
and there a few green spots in specially sheltered and moist localities.
Those burnt spaces may extend for miles, and are for the time veritable
deserts. The landscape being quite black and the atmosphere generally very
clear, it is obvious that objects of any lighter colour would be conspicuous
at very long distances: an ideal background for khaki targets.
Most of the land is well suited for agriculture, but by far the largest
proportion is as yet used only for raising sheep, horses and cattle. Angora
goats also thrive in the hillier parts. About forty years ago the Karoo
plains, the Orange Free State, and Transvaal were, so to say, monopolised by
milliards of game. Standing upon an eminence or a swell one could see in all
directions, as far as the eye could reach, innumerable herds of all sorts of
game grazing, resting or gambolling; the different kinds would be ranged in
separate groups and could be distinguished by their special colours—the
black-looking wildebeest (gnu) next to the striped quag-gas, the
white-flanked springbocks, blesbocks with a blaze on their foreheads, the
larger elands and other kinds of the antelope species. Almost all those vast
herds have disappeared since, having been killed off by natives and Boers
for their hides and for food, or else scared away farther north, where
rinderpest extirpated nearly all the rest in 1895-1897.
In
the earlier days, and even not so long ago in some parts, the farmers' crops
required guarding during the night against the depredations of game. This is
still so in the north-western plains of the Cape Colony, as already
remarked. In May most of the Harrismith district farmers and those of the
Transvaal high veldt move their sheep, horses and cattle to winter in Natal,
Swaziland, and to the other extensive low lands most adjacent, to return
after the spring rains in September or October. Sheep and horses could not
with safety remain longer in those warm regions, as then the fatal malarial
blaauwtong begins there to attack sheep, and horse sickness becomes virulent
as well. The high veldt, as said before, is exempt from that danger.
Some of the wealthier farmers can arrange it so that they and their families
can winter at their comfortable high-veldt homes and send attendants with
their cattle to the low veldt, while others, not so well favoured, must
close up their houses and accompany their flocks to winter in the warm
tracts, where they live in their wagons and tents and escape the outlay for
winter clothing.
Owing to the scarcity of wood on the high veldt, kraal fuel used formerly to
be the staple substitute. This would be obtained by penning up sheep
over-night. The deposits were after a month or two dug out in thick flags,
which, after being stacked and dried over the kraal wall, would burn nearly
as well and as brightly as wood. The discovery of coal beds in so many
accessible places in the Cape Colony, Natal, and in the two Republics has
since superseded that sort of fuel to a great extent.
The small divergence between summer and winter temperature upon the high
table lands will be seen from the following table taken from observations at
5,500 to 6,000 feet altitude in the Transvaal:—
In
winter—28° to 40° at night; 35° to 70° by day in the shade. In
summer—40° to 60° at night; 50° to 90° by day in the shade.
It
is not often that 85° is reached, and rarely above. This applies equally to
the more southern and thus colder latitudes of Queenstown, at 3,000 feet
elevation, and to the eastern half of the Orange Free State, at 4,000 to
5,000 feet, the warmth increasing, as said before, proportionately with the
descent in altitude, and on occasions of tardy summer rains.
The winter is the most enjoyable of the seasons, being an almost
uninterrupted continuation of fine sunny weather. On occasions there would
be spells of boisterous weather with a rather sudden and inclement decrease
of temperature, brought on by cold south-east winds; if these are
accompanied with rain in winter, which, however, rarely happens, it would
sometimes turn to sleet or even snow, or else to hard freezing at night. The
snow would, however, thaw with the warmth of the sun, and so restore the
temperature as before. The bracing quality of the climate mostly consists
just in those variations of cool nights and warm days, and the occasional
days of comparatively cold, boisterous weather. The latter must indeed be
provided against, for even in December—that is to say, in the middle of
summer—it would be imprudent to travel without great-coats as well as
waterproofs, so as to be protected against unexpected changes, from say,
100° in the sun, almost suddenly to 40° with a driving wind, accompanied
perhaps with rain. Such transitions are trying in the open, even if one is
well clad, and the blustering weather is sometimes so severe, if it happens
in winter or early spring, as to approach the character of a blizzard. One
such lasted about thirty hours in the early spring of 1881. It swept over
the entire South African plateaux and destroyed great numbers of sheep and
cattle. These fell exhausted in their flight before they could reach some
sheltering hills or ravines. In situations where such protections from the
cold south-east wind were far apart the veldt was on the following day found
strewn with their carcases, and upon the still more extensive and unbroken
plains antelopes even perished in enormous numbers simply from exhaustion in
trying to escape and find shelter from the cold wind.
I
will just describe one of those occurrences, the severest in my experience
and well remembered by the Free State and the Transvaal Boers—it was, I
think, in 1881. One sunny day, early in August (spring time), at a place
about twenty miles east of Reddersburg, in the Orange Free State, the wind
veered to the south-east, and by afternoon had begun to blow fairly hard and
cold, about 35° Fahrenheit—that is to say, about 35° below the temperature
of a few hours previously. I had managed to get some milch cows driven near
to the kraal, where there would have been very fair shelter for them, but
luckily, as the sequel proved, they refused to enter, and rushed past in a
scared way, just snatching up one mouthful of forage which had been thrown
down to entice them to stay, and making off as hard as they could. The wind
did not abate till the day after, when tales kept pouring in of terrible
losses of sheep and cattle killed by the cold wind; sheep in open plains had
suffered most, and cattle which had been kraaled were nearly all dead,
whilst the herds of cattle and horses which had been left grazing out had
been driven away and were also believed to have died. At the farm of a
certain Andries Bester, near by, some seventy head of cattle in very good
condition were found dead, piled up to the level of one of the kraal walls,
showing the struggle which some thirty others had in escaping over the mound
of dead cattle to the outside of the kraal.
The next day all those thirty head were found grazing some fifteen miles
westwards under the lee of hills near Reddersburg, where they had found safe
shelter. Everybody's cattle were recovered which had not been kraaled,
including mine. This was the case as well with cattle which had been
tethered to their transport wagons and which succeeded in breaking loose,
whilst the rest were found dead where they had been tied.
There was no possibility of restraining cattle or horses from
stampeding—they did it from the instinct of self-preservation, for, whilst
running with the wind, its force of driving cold was proportionately
lessened, and some loss of heat was made good by the exertion of running,
which they had to keep up till in safe shelter of hills or ravines.
Had such a cold storm overtaken an army or patrol, the situation would have
been exactly similar, and would have been an ordeal even to experienced
Boers or Colonial farmers, and if an enemy had been located near
Reddersburg, all the cattle and horses would simply have fallen into his
lap.
The obvious safeguard would be a rug for each horse and mule, and for oxen
the erection of a shelter against the wind, consisting of all available
wagons and stores, or else, if practicable, to move at once to a sheltered
locality and always provide a good reserve supply of forage or other
provender. That sort of boisterous, cold weather continues sometimes, with
more or less severity, two or three days. The want of food and inclemency
besides would result in killing the weak cattle and weaken the rest so as to
be incapable of work for some days after. The difficulty consists in that
such inclement changes occur so suddenly, and that their severity and
duration cannot be forecasted.
Upon other much less severe occasions entire gangs of 20-50 Kaffirs,
travelling from the warm north to the diamond-fields or gold-mines, and not
sufficiently provided with blankets, would be found at their camping places
huddled together, nearly all numbed to death. The months when such surprise
weather is most liable to occur are from "July to October," before and
during the earlier spring rains. It is then, and even up to December at
times, that the Drakensberg and other mountains resume their snow-capped
winter decorations for some days. There is a saying which fairly well
applies to the high-veldt climate, i.e., that cold and inclement weather is
not met with until well in towards summer, especially about the time of
spring rains, and that hot weather of any considerable continuance mostly
occurs in spring. This will be understood upon considering that the
midsummer months, December to February, are cooled by very frequent and
copious rains, whilst the heat accumulates more during the preceding sunny
spring months, which are interrupted at rarer intervals by short showers
only.
Upon the whole, and despite the few eccentricities mentioned, the high veldt
is favoured with a climate which, for genial comfort all the year round,
exempt from prolonged winter rigours and excessive summer heat, is not found
anywhere else in the world, or only in rare privileged spots. It is withal
most healthy, promoting the highest possible physical development and even
longevity.
Under such favoured conditions the hand of man only is needed in providing
good habitations, planting trees, in the culture of the soil, and some
irrigation labour, to transform nearly every little farm within five to ten
years from a bare pastoral monotony to a really idyllic spot. There are many
such already in Basutoland, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal, as
well as in the Cape Colonies and Natal—veritable Eden-like places, as it
were bits dropped from heaven. With a continuance of peace these could be
multiplied to any extent each year, thus rendering those sparsely inhabited
tracts the most beautiful areas in the world, with a prosperous
self-sustaining population, quite apart from considerations of mineral
wealth.
The foregoing description of the high-veldt climate points to clothing
composed of woollen fabrics as the only rational and safe attire for men
travelling or taking the field. No constitution could be expected to hold
out against the ever-changing temperature and weather if depending upon
being clad, for example, in a cotton suit; this would only do on warm days
for men who are certain of being safely housed at night and sheltered during
rainy weather. Horses and mules in the open should be provided with woollen
rugs during winter and spring.
