176 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



for, as you probably know, there are many places in 

 this region where that metal occurs. After our 

 four days' rest by the noble river we were all greatly 

 refreshed, and quite prepared for the severe travel 

 that lay again before us. As we were doubtful 

 whether we should find water at the next fountain 

 that Klaas knew of, owing to the prevalence of 

 drought — and as it was an utter impossibility (so 

 Klaas informed me) to get down to the river on this 

 side for several days owing to the steep mountain 

 wall that everywhere encompassed it — I filled the 

 water vatjes, and every other utensil I could think 

 of; and then, all being ready, and the oxen 

 inspanned, we moved briskly forward. 



" We had now to make a detour to the right, away 

 from the river, and for great part of a day picked our 

 painful footsteps over a rough and semi-mountainous 

 country. Towards evening, we emerged upon a 

 dreary and interminable waste that lay outstretched 

 before us, its far horizon barred in the dim distance 

 by towering mountains, through which we should 

 presently have to force our passage. That evening 

 we outspanned in a howling wilderness of loose and 

 scorching sand, upon which scarcely a bush or shrub 

 found subsistence. After a night, not too comfortable, 

 and broken by some hyenas that prowled restlessly 

 about, we were up betimes next morning. As soon 

 as the oxen were inspanned, and ready to move 

 forward for the mountains to which Klaas had 

 directed our course, I rode off for a low kopje that 

 rose from the plain away in the distance, hoping to 

 see game beyond. I was not disappointed ; a small 

 troop of hartebeest was grazing about half-a-mile 

 off, and by dint of a little manoeuvring with my 



