216 LODGES IN THE WILDERNESS 



of receiving a little tobacco. And I found I 

 could still spare a few dates for the children. 



In one of the scherms was a newly-born 

 baby, a girl. It weirdly resembled a hairless, 

 light-yellow monkey. I made the mother very 

 happy by presenting her with a shilling and 

 my only pocket-handkerchief, — a red bandana. 

 The shilling judiciously invested at com- 

 pound interest, might provide the youngster 

 with a dowry. 



After a long, monotonous and extremely hot 

 walk, we got beyond the convoluted gorge and 

 once more began to descend towards the river. 

 We now had a view of the level coast desert — 

 or would have had if the landscape had not 

 been to a great extent shrouded in fog. The 

 river had widened and apparently become 

 deeper. After its plunge into the abyss at 

 Aughrabies, its struggle for many hundred 

 miles through the depths of the black, torrid 

 gorge, — it advanced with silent, stately, de- 

 liberate stride to rejoin the ocean — the mother 

 that gave it birth. 



The landscape ahead had completely 

 altered its character. On the northern side 

 of the river it was still mountainous, but the 

 mountains had receded somewhat, and they 

 rapidly decreased in height to the westward. 



