174 EIDE ON TO THE OVAMPO. [chap. vi. 



John Williams, Aiiclersson, and myself were all on 

 ride oxen ; we had three carrying packs, and a few 

 others loose, with a small drove of sheep : I also took 

 half a dozen Damaras with me. We passed vast 

 numbers of old elephant tracks, but saw no fresh 

 spoors, and halted after proceeding a short distance, 

 but the next day we made a long tedious journey from 

 sunrise to sunset, getting among hiUs and quite losing 

 our wa3^ We passed a magnificent set of pitfalls, 

 which the bushmen who live about these hills had 

 made ; the whole breadth of the valley was staked and 

 bushed across. At intervals the fence was broken, 

 and where broken deep pitfalls were made. The 

 strength and size of the timber that was used gave me 

 a great idea of Bushman industry, for every tree had 

 to be burnt down and carried away from the hills, and 

 yet the scale of the undertaking would have excited 

 astonishment in far more civilised nations. When a 

 herd of animals was seen among the hills the Bvishmen 

 drove them through this valley up to the fence ; this 

 was too high for them to jump, so that they were obliged 

 to make for the gaps, and there tumbled into the pitfalls. 

 We had seen no peojile about, but at night when we 

 offpacked, the hill-top in front of us blazed with fires. 

 I presume that more trees were being burnt to make a 

 second set of pitfalls. It was no encouragement to us 

 to see these fires, for three or four bushmen, each 

 with one meal's provision of water, might have walked 

 over from a great distance, and made them, and 

 therefore I had no reason to expect to find near at hand 

 the water that we already were in want of for the oxen. 



