ciup. VHi. APPROACH TO THE ORANGE RIVER. 213 



forty in one day. He said they were very destructive, and 

 that, though by strict watching they might be kept from the 

 crops during the day, they could not be kept off by night, 

 and sometimes devoured the whole of the grain, and every 

 other green thing. 



Our conversation then turned upon colonial affairs, and 

 afterwards on the war in Europe, the alliance between England 

 and France, with the politics and literature of England. Our 

 host told us his name was Gilfillan, and asked if I knew 

 whether the author of the " Bards of the Bible " was froni 

 Selkirk. On learning that I expected soon to return to 

 England, he said he should like to visit the old country 

 again, but supposed he never should. I wanted to look over 

 his garden, but the time had passed so rapidl}^ in this un- 

 looked-for oasis, that we felt obliged to bid our friends a 

 hasty farewell and depart. The place is called Wonder Hill, 

 from a singular conical mountain rising near the house. 



Passing along, after our departure, over the same treeless 

 region we reachecl, in the afternoon of the 24th of February, 

 the frontier village of Colesberg. There we spent a pleasant 

 Sabbath with M. De Kok, and on Monday afternoon pursued 

 our way towards the Orange Eiver, twenty miles distant, 

 where we arrived the same evening. 



On approaching the river, Ave found it impassable. A 

 number of families, with their waggons, were waiting on both 

 sides for the subsiding of the swollen waters. The man in 

 charge of the ferry told us it had not been passed since 

 Saturday, and that it was uncertain when the flood would 

 subside. We walked to the side of the stream, but the 

 violence and noise with which the turbid waters rolled along 

 afforded little hope of a speedy passage to the opposite shore. 

 The scene along the banks presented a curious spectacle. We 

 seemed to be in the midst of a wide encampment. Gripsy 

 fires gleamed in every direction along the borders of the 



P 3 



