SOUTHERN AFRICA. 1G7 



in water ; our followers remained sitting- all nig-ht in the 

 bag-g*ag'e-wag-o*on^ wliich leaked considerably^ but our own, 

 being' better covered, fortunately resisted the pitiless storm. 

 Sleep was however out of the question, the earth actually 

 threatening- to give Avay under us, and the lightning- being" 

 so painfully vivid that we were g'lad to hide our heads under 

 the pillow. 



Those only who have witnessed the setting* in of the 

 south-west monsoon in India, are capable of fully under- 

 standing* the awful tempest I have attempted to describe. 

 About an hour before daAvn its fury beg-an to abate, and 

 at sunrise it was perfectly fine, but the rivers were quite 

 impassable. I proceeded with some of the Hottentots to 

 reconnoitre the pass, but found that it was impassable for 

 wag-g-ons, being- nothing* more than a narrow channel flanked 

 by perpendicular crag's, between which the Sant river rushes 

 on its way to join the Ling-khng*, making* a number of 

 very abrupt winding-s throug-h a most impracticable country, 

 intersected b}^ a succession of rocky acclivities. From 

 the hig-hest peak we saw several herds of buffaloes, and 

 whilst descending- came upon the tracks of a huge bull- 

 elephant that had passed about an hour before. This being 

 the largest foot-print we had seen, I had the curiosity to 

 measure it, in order to ascertain the animal's height — 

 twice the circumference of an elephant's foot being, it is 

 notorious, the exact height at the shoulder. It yielded a 

 product of about twelve feet, which, notwithstanding the 

 extravagant traditions that have been handed down, I believe 

 to be the maximum height attained by the African elephant.* 

 We followed the trail across the Sant river, which had now 

 considerably subsided— and finding that it proceeded east- 



* Elcphns Africanus. Delineated in tlie Portraits of Game and Wild 

 Animals of Soutliern Africa. 



