igo KLOOF AND KARROO. 



" The awful silence of this sepulchral place was 

 presently, as we rested for ten minutes, broken by a 

 posse of baboons, who having espied us from their 

 krantzes above, came shoggling down to see what we 

 were. They were huge brutes and savage, and 

 quah-quahed at us threateningly, till Klaas sent a 

 bullet into them, when they retreated pell-mell. We 

 soon started again, and pressed rapidly along a 

 narrow gorge some fifty feet wide with perfectly 

 level precipitous walls, apparently worn smooth at 

 their bases by the action of terrific torrents, probably 

 an early development of the Orange River when first 

 it made its way through these grim defiles. The 

 ground we walked upon was, I noticed, composed of 

 sand and rounded pebbles, evidently water-worn 

 and of various kinds. Some of them were round 

 masses of the most beautiful transparent crystal-spar, 

 often as large as a man's head. 



"Presently the causeway narrowed still more, and 

 then turning a sharp corner, we suddenly came upon 

 a pair of leopards sauntering coolly towards us. I 

 didn't like the look of things at all, for a leopard at 

 the best of times is an ugly customer, even when he 

 knows and dreads firearms, and here probably the 

 animals had never even heard the report of a 

 gun. 



"The brutes showed no intention of bolting, but 

 stood with their backs up, their tails waving 

 ominously, and their gleaming teeth bared in fierce 

 defiance. There was nothing for it, either we or 

 they must retreat, and having come all this frightful 

 trek for the diamonds, I felt in no mood to back 

 down, even to Felis pardus in his very nastiest mood. 

 Looking to our rifles, we moved very quietly 



