240 EXPEDITION INTO 



CHAPTER XXXIIL 



THREE days' SOLITARY WANDERING IN THE 

 WILDERNESS. 



Christmas- DAY was preg'nant with an event which for some 

 time cast a dismal g-loom over the party, and had nearly 

 caused my separation from it during- the remainder of the 

 journey. Three hours before that festive morn had dawned 

 upon us, our search for water was renewed— the moon ena- 

 bling- us to trace the wag-gon road, althoug'h at every step it 

 was becoming less and less distinct. Arriving as the day 

 broke, at the summit of a gentle ascent, which here dis- 

 tui'bing- the monotony of the otherwise uniformly level flat, 

 had obstructed our view to the southward, another vast land- 

 scape presented itself to our gaze. Endless meads, clad in a 

 vernal and variegated robe of gay but scentless flowers, in 

 whose presence the desert seemed to smile, spreading away 

 before us, exhibited the motley confusion of a Turkey car- 

 pet. One isolated tumulus stood like a pine-apple in the 

 centre, and in the distance, three rectangular table-topped 

 mountains, of singularly uniform appearance, reminded the 

 spectator of terraced barrack-rooms— shooting-boxes per- 

 haps, erected by the giants of olden times. Hair-brained 

 gnoos, careering over the plain, hailed our advance — now 

 stopping inquisitively to scrutinize the waggons — then lash- 

 ing their dark sides with their snowy tails, as they hastily 

 retreated. Large troops of bles-boks,* or white-faced an- 



* Gazella Albifrons. Delineated in tlie Portraits of Game and Wild Animals 

 of Southern Africa. 



