CHAP. II.] OOSOP. 41 



sight of the Swakop, in its deep hollow, charmed us-; 

 the plain on which we had travelled was nine or ten 

 hundred feet above our head, and the crumbling rocks 

 that flanked the gorge, which the river had made for 

 itself, were magnificently abrupt. The bed was as 

 smooth as a lawn, and as green with grass — a little 

 sand peeping out here and there, — a thick fringe of 

 high reeds bordered the river bed, clumps of fine 

 camelthorn trees were clustered wherever there was 

 room for them, and a small rivulet of water trickled 

 along; skulls of numerous buffaloes were lying about; 

 and Oosop, for that was the name of the place, seemed 

 a scene in Rasselas' Happy Valley. 



We stopped all day enjoying ourselves, and had a 

 good bathe m a hollow beneath a huge rock, which the 

 rivulet had filled with water. There was not a sign of 

 game ; not a spoor that was not many days old ; and 

 those that were there were chiefly of buffaloes, and all 

 going down towards the mouth of the river. 



The Swakop is the artery of half Damara and 

 Namaqua land ; all the best watering-places are in it. 

 It is the frontier between those two nations. There 

 are three Missionary stations on its banks ; and along 

 its side is the only road that is known to be practicable 

 at all seasons from the sea to the interior. The 

 Kuisip leads into Namaqua land ; but the watering- 

 places are few and uncertain: the road by it is 

 execrable in places, and cannot bear comparison with 

 the Swakop. No peo]jle inhabit Oosop, or the lower 

 part of the river, except some straggling Ghou 

 Damup, who live, Hke jackdaws, up in the hills. 



