26 LODGES IN THE WILDERNESS 



to the cloudless sky. On the western side 

 these ridges seemed to break like waves 

 against the enormous bronze-hued bastions of 

 the Kamiesbergen ; on the eastward they sank 

 by degrees into the ocean-like expanse of the 

 desert. 



Huddled in irregular patches where the 

 dykes sprang from the red sand were the 

 " koekerboome " ("quiver-trees," — so called 

 because the Bushmen used pithed sections of 

 the boughs as receptacles for their arrows.) 

 These were gigantic aloes of archaic form and 

 immense age. As a rule their height was from 

 fifteen to twenty feet. Their ungainly trunks 

 were cone-shaped, groined and heavily but- 

 tressed. The rosette-crowned ends of their 

 dichotomous branches collectively formed a 

 more or less irregular oval. But at one spot, 

 as we crossed the line where the hills ended 

 and the plains began, we noticed some with 

 smooth, slender, white boles rising to a height 

 of nearly sixty feet, — each crowned with a 

 single cup-like whorl of leaves. 



Gamoep, where the last water was to be 

 found, lay on the actual edge of the level 

 desert some distance to the south-east of 

 Silverfontein. To reach it involved a long 

 day's trek, for the route was through soft sand. 



