204 THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 



When I eat them now I soak them in my coffee as 

 hot as it can be produced, then rapidly afterwards 

 skim the surface the less time lost in performing the 

 latter operation the better, as they are apt to get 

 boiled down, and thus act as thickening to the beverage. 



Leaving my new acquaintances, who propose journey- 

 ing on with the wagon, accompanied by three of the 

 dogs, I struck out on the velt and reached several 

 coppies and ridges of rocks, all of which were more or 

 less covered with trees. The scenery and characteristics 

 of the features of the country are more thoroughly, 

 every mile we progress, undergoing a marked change, 

 while a distant range of hills, eighteen hundred to two 

 thousand feet high, shuts out the horizon to the north. 



In a valley formed by this ridge is Zeerust, and to 

 the right, about ten miles distant, is Jacobsdal, both 

 being in the province of Marico. The population of 

 neither of these places is above fifty or sixty souls, 

 and they are the last pretence at civilisation to be 

 found. 



While passing along the margin of a clear purling 

 brook, that would have done honour to even bonnie 

 Herefordshire, I came across a new species of bee-eater 

 (apiaster), possessed of the most gorgeous plumage. 

 Substituting small shot for ball, I succeeded, after a 

 great deal of trouble and stalking, in getting a shot. 

 In Smith's "Birds of South Africa" it is not mentioned, 

 nor have I seen it before ; even at the large Ornitho- 

 logical Museum at Cape Town it is not represented. 

 Therefore I naturally conclude it to be a new species, 

 and feel not a little proud at the possibility of intro- 

 ducing to science a specimen of animal life that has 

 hitherto been unknown. The predominant colour is a 



