198 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



and continued my journey in a northeasterly course 

 through a heavy sandy country of boundless level plains, 

 stretching away on every side, covered with rank yel- 

 low grass, which, waving in the breeze, imparted the 

 idea of endless fields of ripe corn. At sundown we 

 crossed the Matluarin River, an insignificant stream, 

 and encamped on its northern bank. On the march 

 we saw a few blue wildebeests and ostriches. At dawn 

 of day on the following morning we pursued our jour- 

 ney through the same description of country, varied, 

 however, with detached clumps of thorny mimosas. On 

 the march we crossed a swarm of locusts, resting for 

 the night on the grass and bushes. They lay so thick 

 that the wagons could have been filled with them in a 

 very short time, covering the large bushes just as a 

 swarm of young bees covers the branch on wdiich it 

 pitches. Locusts afford fattening and wholesome food 

 to man, birds, and all sorts of beasts ; cows and horses, 

 lions, jackals, hyaenas, antelopes, elephants, &c., de- 

 vour them. We met a party of Batlapis carrying heavy 

 burdens of them on their backs. Our hungry dogs made 

 a fine feast on them. The cold frosty night had ren- 

 dered them unable to take wing until the sun should 

 restore their powers. As it was difficult to obtain 

 sufficient food for my dogs, I and Isaac took a large 

 blanket, which we spread under a hush, whose branches 

 were bent to the ground with the mass of locusts which 

 covered it; and having shaken the branches, in an in- 

 stant I had more locusts than I could carry on my back : 

 these we roasted for ourselves and dogs. 



Soon after the sun was up, on looking behind me, I 

 beheld the locusts stretching to the west in vast clouds, 

 resembling smoke; but the wind, soon after veering 

 round, brought them back to us, and they flew over our 



