1 86 LODGES IN THE WILDERNESS 



the Bushmanland plains; the heat was not so 

 great, but what there was of it proved exhaust- 

 ing. A haze brooded over the earth; through 

 it the north-western mountain range loomed 

 gigantic and mysterious. There were no 

 roads, — unless a wide-meshed network of half- 

 obliterated tracks — probably old game-paths 

 — could be described as such. One strange 

 peculiarity of the coastal desert is the extra- 

 ordinary persistence of spoor and other mark- 

 ings on the surface of the ground. Near Wal- 

 fish Bay the clear tracks of elephants may still 

 be seen, — and there has not been an elephant 

 in the vicinity for upwards of half a century. 



After desperate efforts we reached Kuboos 

 on the afternoon of the fourth day, I never 

 thought it possible that a wagon could travel 

 where ours did. We ploughed through cala- 

 mitous expanses of sand, we floundered 

 through dusty dongas. We bumped and clat- 

 tered over high, steep-sided ramparts of rock. 

 But the skill of Andries as a driver, the en- 

 durence of the oxen and the strength of the 

 wagon brought us safely through. 



The quaint little collection of ramshackle 

 buildings forming the missing station, was 

 perched on a ledge just below where the more 

 or less gradual descent of the T'Oums Moun- 



