50 EXCESSIVE HEAT. [chap. ii. 



tlieii- language without any other of their own. It 

 seemed that these Ghou Damup have a stronghold of 

 their own, a large table -mountain, inaccessible except 

 by one or two passes, which a white man in the 

 country, by name Hans, of whom I shall have much to 

 say by and by, had visited and gone up ; he gave me a 

 very interesting account of it. This mountam I had 

 made Stewartson promise to accompany me to, to buy 

 goats, after I had reached the Missionary station a-head. 

 Now these very Ghou Damup belonged to it, and 

 therefore we engaged them as guides. I found also the 

 advantage of having natives to do the troublesome 

 work, as carrying wood, watching cattle, — which they 

 have an aptitude for, and which similar servants do 

 not Uke, and cannot be spared to perform. 



Erongo is the name of the mountain ; it was described 

 as two days' journey, either from hereabouts or from 

 the next Missionary station (Otjimbingue) that of 

 Mr. Kath's. We had no difficulty in explaining our 

 wants to the Ghou Damup, although Stewartson's 

 vocabulary was extremely limited; few interjections, 

 twenty or thirty substantives, and infinite gesticulation, 

 are amply sufficient for a dexterous traveller to convey 

 to an intelligent native his views and wishes on a 

 marvellous variety of subjects. 



My thermometers had been packed so carefuUy that 

 I had never liitherto looked at them, but to-day it felt 

 very hot, and I took them out. I could not have con- 

 ceived the heat — 143° in sun at three o'clock, and 95° in 

 the shade. The poor mules cannot get on through 

 the horrible sand. Andersson very nearly had a 



