308 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXXV. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



PLUNDERED BY BUSHMAN HORDES, AND LEFT A 

 WRECK IN THE DESERT. 



Resuming our pilgrimage on the morning of the 

 1st January, 1837, our road wound among singular 

 groups of detached hills, which wore the appearance 

 of having accidentally fallen there after the forma- 

 tion of the plain ; blue peaks and mountain ridges 

 stretching along the horizon, and deepening their 

 tints as we advanced. Again, the valleys were 

 spread, as with flocks of sheep, with countless herds 

 of graceful spring-bucks, displaying the snow-white 

 folds on their haunches while they vaulted over 

 each other's heads ; and for the first time since 

 quitting the Colony, several secretary birds were now 

 observed strutting about the plain, in search of 

 snakes, upon which reptiles they principally subsist. 

 In many places the ground was strewed with the 

 blanched skeletons of gnoos and other wild animals, 

 which had evidently been slaughtered by Bushmen, 

 and the traces of these Troglodytes waxed hourly 

 more apparent, as the country became more in- 

 habitable ; the base of one hill in particular, in which 

 some of their caves were discovered, presenting the 

 appearance of a Golgotha — several himdred gnoos' 

 and bonte-bucks' skulls being collected in a single 

 heap. 



