CHAP. IV.] MISHAPS. 107 



thoroughly acquainted with the management of oxen. 

 We had a succession of mishaps the whole way to 

 Barmen: it took us seven days to go the seventy 

 miles ; and my men had no light work of it. The 

 rainy season was daily expected, and when it comes, 

 violent torrents constantly sweep down the Swakop : 

 this was unpleasant, as its bed had to be crossed per- 

 petually, and it was invariably in the midst of its deep 

 sand that the oxen came to a halt, and resolutely 

 refused more work for that day. On one occasion the 

 sticking-point was a steep sand-pitch, of about six feet 

 high, out of the river-bed. The oxen drew the waggon 

 till its fore-wheels reached the top of the pitch, and 

 there it stuck. We tried everything, but the puU was 

 entirely beyond their power ; indeed, they were far too 

 wild to exert themselves together. It reaUy seemed 

 as though we shoiild remain fixed there, till the oxen 

 had been thoroughly broken in by other means, or till 

 the river swept us away ; however, I recollected the 

 manner in which our ancestors, in the times of the 

 Druids, are said to have managed their large stones, 

 and tried that plan on my waggon : that is to say, I 

 hfted one wheel with the lifter, and had a flat stone 

 put under it, then the other, and did the same to that, 

 and so I continued raising the hind-wheels alternately, 

 until the back end of the waggon was lifted up some 

 thi'ee feet on two pUes of stones. I had of course to 

 be careful in making my buildings very firm, and in 

 scotching the fore -wheels, lest the waggon should run 

 back. I now built a causeway from the piles up to 

 the fore -wheels, and lastly, put smooth stones not only 



