310 MEN AND CATTLE LIVE WITHOUT WATER. 



From their quick step, good feet, and enduring powers, the 

 Damara cattle are much prized by the farmers of the Cape 

 Colony. The only drawback is their wildness and immense 

 size of their horns, which they sometimes use with fatal effect. 



The day before we reached the Orange River we fell in 

 with a kraal of Hottentots, whom, to our great surprise, we 

 found living in a locality altogether destitute of water ! The 

 milk of their cows and goats supplied its place. Their cat- 

 tle, moreover, never obtained water, but found a substitute 

 in a kind of ice-plant {mesemh^anthemum), of an exceedingly 

 succulent nature, which abounds in these regions. But our 

 own oxen, not accustomed to such diet, would rarely or never 

 touch it. Until I had actually convinced myself — as I had 

 often the opportunity of doing at an after period — that men 

 and beasts could live entirely without water, I should, per- 

 haps, have had some difficulty in realizing this singular fact. 



On the 21st of August we effected the passage of the 

 Orange River in safety at what is called the Zendlings Drift, 

 or the missionary ford. We had no boat, and those of the 

 men who could not swim were obliged to lay hold of the tails 

 of the cattle, to which they pertinaciously clung. On gain- 

 ing the opposite bank, which was very steep, the oxen, in 

 climbing it, entirely submerged their charge, to the great de- 

 light and amusement of such of their companions as had 

 landed at a more convenient point. 



The Orange River was at this season almost at its lowest, 

 yet it was a noble and highly picturesque stream. Looking 

 eastward, its aspect was particularly imposing. Its breadth 

 at this point might have been from two to three hundred 

 yards. The banks were on both sides lined with evergreen 

 thorns, drooping willows, ebony-trees, &c. ; and the water 

 forced its passage through a bold and striking gorge, over- 

 hung by precipices from two to three thousand feet high. 

 But the country all round was desolate. The hills, which at 

 some distant period had evidently been subject to volcanic 



