We cannot leave Lord Roberts's report without noting his well-justified
boast that while he was in chief com- mand in South Africa " no mishaps occurred, nor had any military operation to be postponed or aban- doned, owing to the transport being inadequate or in- efficient." This fascinating report ends with a eulogium on the South African transport ox, which appears to be a most exemplary beast. He never " corks "—i.e., fails to work his hardest, as sometimes happens in an eight-oared boat's crew— but, however large a team may be, always pulls his level best. " With heavy guns as many as twenty spans of oxen were employed, and when they were on the more the trek chain was always taut." Mr. Kipling will not be doing his duty to the Empire if he forgets to immortalise the trek ox. What a tine monument might be made to the officers and men of the transport in the shape of a span of trek oxen standing on a granite pedestal just released from their yoke.
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