A DESERT WELL. 119 



summits of which were hung with immense quantities 

 of mealy heads, proof that the harvest had been 

 abundant, and that the residents were not in want 

 of food. 



But prosperity did not appear to have had the 

 effect of producing cleanliness, for the whole of the 

 inclosure was such a mass of muck, produced by the 

 constant treading of the cattle that were here shel- 

 tered at night, that it looked actually perilous to 

 cross over, for fear of getting stuck in the glutinous 

 mixture. A wild and rough ride through a very 

 rugged kloof, the path of which in many instances 

 was almost as bad as a staircase, from the ridges of 

 rock that traversed it, brought me, with thankful- 

 ness, in view of the water. The bush that clothed 

 either side of this kloof was remarkable for its 

 height and the density of its growth, in many parts 

 appeared to be matted together by numerous creepers 

 and different varieties of parasitic plants. My horse 

 being at that time unshod, he made rather a mess 

 over such a roadway, and several times nearly came on 

 his nose, when broken knees would almost inevitably 

 have resulted to him. Such a country as this, with 

 water close by, cannot have failed at one time to 

 have been a special haunt of all the larger beasts of 

 the chase. 



I searched the margin of the fountain for spoor, 

 but the surface of it being composed of slaty 

 stone, lying in thin layers in gradually decreasing 



