40 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. VI. 



Orange River — the only stream within many hun- 

 dred miles that is entitled to the appellation. 

 Emerging from this desolation and sterility, the first 

 glimpse that we obtained of it realized those ideas 

 of elegant and classic scenery which exists in the 

 minds of poets. The alluring fancies of a fairy 

 fiction, or the fascinating imagery of a romance, 

 were here brought into actual existence. The 

 waters of this majestic river, three hundred yards 

 in breadth, flowing in one unbroken expanse, re- 

 sembled a smooth translucent lake; and as its 

 <j-entle waves glided past on their way to join the 

 restless ocean, bearing on their limpid bosom as in 

 a polished mirror, the image of their wood-clothed 

 borders, they seemed to kiss the shore before bid- 

 ding it farewell. Drooping willows, clad in their 

 vest of vernal freshness, leaned over the bank — and 

 dipping their slender branches into the tide, which 

 glistened with the last rays of the setting sun — 

 seemed fain to follow : whilst at intervals, the 

 wrecks of stately trees that had been torn from 

 their roots by the violence of the torrent during 

 some vast inundation, of which the traces on the 

 shore gave evidence — reared their dilapidated heads 

 in token of the then resistless fury of that flood, 

 which now appeared so smooth and tranquil. To 

 those who may conceive this description overcharged 

 I will only remark, that the sight of water after 

 days in the desert, is probably one of the most 

 delightful sensations that a human being can ex- 

 perience. 



