•258 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXXIII. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



THREE DAYS' SOLITARY WANDERING IN THE 

 WILDERNESS. 



Christmas-day was pregnant with an event which 

 for some time cast a dismal gloom over the party, 

 and had nearly caused my separation from it during 

 the remainder of the journey. Three hours before 

 that festive morn had dawned upon us, our search 

 for water was renewed — the m.oon enabling us to 

 trace the waggon road, although at every step it was 

 becoming less and less distinct. Arriving as the 

 day broke, at the summit of a gentle ascent, which 

 here disturbing the monotony of the otherwise 

 uniformly level flat, had obstructed our view to the 

 southward, another vast landscape presented itself to 

 our gaze. Endless meads, clad in a vernal and 

 variegated robe of gay but scentless flowers, in 

 V, hose presence the desert seemed to smile, spread- 

 ing away before us, exhibited the motley confusion 

 of a Turkey carpet. One isolated tumulus stood 

 like a pine-apple in the centre, and in the distance, 

 three rectangular table-topped mountains, of singu- 

 larly uniform appearance, reminded the spectator of 

 terraced barrack-rooms — shooting-boxes perhaps, 

 erected by the giants of olden times. Hair-brained 

 gnoos, careering over the plain, hailed our advance 



