160 DIFFICULTIES OF THE WAY. 



would be realized ! We carefully examined our Mackintosh 

 punt to see that it was sound, as we fully purposed to spend 

 a few weeks on the shores of Omanbonde, in order to enjoy 

 some fishing and shooting. 



By this time we had lost sight of Omuvereoom, which 

 gradually dwindled into a mere sand-ridge, and was now 

 identified with the plain. The vley river just mentioned, 

 which had so long befriended us, we also left behind, and 

 were now traveling across a very sandy tract of country. 

 Fortunately, though the bushes were very thick, only a few 

 were thorny. Moreover, their wood, which was quite new to 

 us, was of so brittle a nature that, although trees from five 

 to six inches in diameter repeatedly obstructed our path, our 

 ponderous vehicles crushed them to the gromid like so many 

 rotten sticks. A European can form no conception of the 

 impracticable country one has to travel over in these parts, 

 and the immense difficulties that must be surmounted. To 

 give a faint idea of the obstructions of this kind of traveling, 

 we will suppose a person suddenly placed at the entrance of 

 a primeval forest of unknown extent, never trodden by the 

 foot of man, the haunt of savage beasts, and with soil as 

 yielding as that of an English sand-down ; to this must be 

 added a couple of ponderous vehicles, as large as the coal- 

 vans met with in the streets of London, only a great deal 

 stouter, to each of which are yoked sixteen or twenty refrac- 

 tory, half- trained oxen. Let him then be told, " Through 

 yonder wood lies your road ; nothing is known of it. Make 

 your way as well as you can ; but remember, your cattle will 

 perish if they do not get water in the course of two or three 

 days." 



No greater calamity could possibly befall us than the break- 

 ing of an axle-tree at a distance from water. Therefore, ev- 

 ery time the wagons struck against a tree, or when the wheels 

 mounted on a stone several feet in height, from which they 

 descended with a crash like thunder, I would pull up abrupt- 



