300 



EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXXIV. 



of flour and sugar had been spoiled in the water, 

 during an attempt which was made to drag the van 

 out backwards, that the latter was at length un- 

 loaded, and towed on shore by the application of a 

 twenty-four ox power. In commemoration of this 

 disaster, the treacherous stream was christened by 

 the Hottentots Sant Riviere, or Sand River, by 

 which homely designation it will be recognised in 

 the map as a tributary of the Likwa. 



We had not advanced above ten miles, before a 

 violent storm of hail and rain obliged us again to 

 halt on the open heath. Piet, who had gone in ad- 

 vance to reconnoitre, lost his way, and did not 

 rejoin the party until midnight, having at length 

 been attracted by the signals made, and by Coeur 

 de Lion's kitchen fire, which, on account of the 

 weather, had with considerable difficulty been kindled 

 in an ant-hill. The country over which we passed 

 was usually covered with dome-shaped mounds of 

 clay, thrown up by the pismire, and invariably 

 scooped out either by the long nails of the ant- 

 eater, or by Bushmen, so as to resemble a baker's 

 oven. In wet weather especially, or during a 

 dearth of fuel, these mounds were our stoutest allies ; 

 but on the other hand, the Hottentots not unfre- 

 quently put the strength of our waggons to the test 

 by driving carelessly over them. 



Two distinct animals are found in this part of the 

 country, that alike burrow in the ground, and appear 

 to subsist entirely upon ants and termites, leaving , 

 upon every habitation thrown up by those minute 



