In the third the same extraordinary drought followed.
Indeed, not ten inches of water fell during these two years,
and the Kolobeng ran dry; so many fish were killed that the hyaenas
from the whole country round collected to the feast, and were unable to finish
the putrid masses.
A large old alligator, which had never been known
to commit any depredations, was found left high and dry in the mud
among the victims. The fourth year was equally unpropitious,
the fall of rain being insufficient to bring the grain to maturity.
Nothing could be more trying. We dug down in the bed of the river
deeper and deeper as the water receded, striving to get a little
to keep the fruit-trees alive for better times, but in vain.
Needles lying out of doors for months did not rust;
and a mixture of sulphuric acid and water, used in a galvanic battery,
parted with all its water to the air, instead of imbibing more from it,
as it would have done in England. The leaves of indigenous trees
were all drooping, soft, and shriveled, though not dead;
and those of the mimosae were closed at midday, the same as they are
at night. In the midst of this dreary drought, it was wonderful to see
those tiny creatures, the ants, running about with their accustomed vivacity.
I put the bulb of a thermometer three inches under the soil,
in the sun, at midday, and found the mercury to stand at 132 Deg.
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