Chap. VI.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 39 



sky unveiled by a cloud, the nights were piercingly 

 cold — our feelings during the latter indicating as 

 well as the thermometer, that the temperature was 

 near the freezing point : and to add to our discom- 

 fort, fuel was rarely procurable. In the morning, 

 the ground was sometimes covered with hoar frost : 

 but the absence either of vapour or cloud to diminish 

 the heat of the sun, soon dispelled the appearance, 

 and rendered visible the nakedness of the land. 

 Mirage in these regions, flickering in the distance, 

 presents to the thirsty traveller an illusion astempt- 

 inor as tantalizing. Blue and delusive lakes, of 

 which the surface seems agitated by a ripple, recede 

 as he advances — and ultimately disappearing, 

 " leave not a wreck behind.'' 



But the monotony of this wearisome journey was 

 not always unbroken by events. We halted the 

 first day on the borders of what appeared to be a 

 body of water many miles in circumference — an 

 oasis in the desert, towards which, after a sultry 

 march of twenty miles, lured by the appearance of 

 several waggons on its brink, both man and beast 

 rushed with impetuosity. We soon perceived, to 

 our disappointment, that we had been deceived b}' 

 a saline deposit of immense extent, at which a party 

 of Boors were engaged in obtaining salt for the use 

 of the colonists : but it was long before the broken- 

 hearted oxen discovered that what they had under- 

 stood to be water, was a mere mineral efflorescence 

 in the desert. 



The fourth day brought us to the magnificent 



