CHAP, vm.] THE OXEN SUFFER SEVERELY. 237 



night was bitterly cold, and when we started the 

 Damaras and ourselves carried firebrands, breathing 

 their smoke to keep us warm. We travelled five hours 

 and came to the edge of the flat. There are wells of 

 brackish water there. The oxen were utterly tired, for 

 we had gone quickly, and the sun was intensely hot after 

 a cold night. I thought the oxen might choose to drink 

 the water though we could not, so I offpacked and 

 tried them, but they refused although now forty-eight 

 hours without water. They would not eat either. 

 "We packed up again after noon and struggled over 

 the flat. The oxen were dead-tired; they tripped 

 their legs together and looked as miserable as could 

 be, but just before nightfall we reached the wells ; 

 there is no shelter nor firewood here, but the bleak 

 wind sweeps over the flat, and tired as we were we 

 had to watch the oxen all night. They drank exces- 

 sively, and then wandered restlessly about in the 

 dark, so that during my watch I could hardly keep 

 them together, though running and walking a great 

 part of the time. 



That night fairly broke the constitutions of 

 Frieschland, Timmerman, Buchau, and Kahikene's 

 ox, and severely tried all the others. The first four 

 were never the same oxen again that they had been 

 before. We stayed at the wells till the forenoon of 

 the next day, and then pushed through the Ovampo 

 werft at the south border of the flat, and offpacked at 

 Etosha. 



June 21si. — We arrived at Omutchamatunda, which 

 we now found deserted, except by a few Bushmen. 



