CHAP. II.] CHANGE OF FOOD AND CLIMATE. 43 



kicldng each other, and whinnjdng all night long ; but 

 the oxen were far more sedate, and lay down, looking 

 at the fire with their large eyes, and chewing the cud. 

 The stars were clear, the air was keen and bracing : we 

 had been eating our last goat, and the mules were 

 stuffed full of reeds and green grass. 



September 21st. — We were off at seven, for packing 

 and harnessing took us about one hour and a-half, and 

 daylight now breaks about half-past five. We only 

 managed to get a cup of coffee before starting. We 

 had bivouacked on the plain, just at the entrance of 

 tlie gorge that leads down to Oosop, and our course 

 to-day was parallel to the Swakop, and on to Davieep, 

 another gorge, but not so deep a one as that of Oosop. 



The sun, from the first, was extremely hot ; we 

 seemed to have quite changed our climate, and the 

 cool sea-breezes were evidently shut out. As the day 

 wore on, the mules showed evident effects of their late 

 change of diet from hard food (corn and dry grass) to 

 green grass and reeds ; — all animals, when travelling, 

 are extremely affected by causes like this, and the 

 necessity of the change is often one of the great diffi- 

 culties of a traveller. We had crossed a ridge ; and a 

 huge, rounded mountain (Tinklias), that faced us, was 

 the principal feature in the landscape. The ground 

 we travelled on was still a crisp gravel, and extended 

 far away to our right ; on our left lay broken rocky 

 ground, then the deep cutting of the river bed, which 

 we often could see nothing of, though so near to it, 

 and beyond, a complete chaos of broken crags and 

 rugged hills ; while level with the tops of these crags, 



