KLOOF AND KARROO. 



was surrounded by stupendous walls of the same 

 ruddy brown rock we had noticed in Paarl Kloof, 

 which here towered to a height of close on a 

 thousand feet. An inspection of these cliffs, which 

 sheered inwards from top to bottom, revealed the 

 fact previously imparted to me by Klaas, that no 

 living being could ever penetrate hither save by the 

 tunnel passage through which we had come. The 

 amphitheatre, which here and there bore upon its 

 surface a thin and scattered covering of bush and 

 undergrowth, seemed everywhere about half-a-mile 

 across from wall to wall. In the centre of the red 

 cliffs, blazing forth in splendour, ran a broad band 

 of the most glorious opalescent rock-crystal, which 

 flashed out its glorious rays of coloured light as if to 

 meet the fiery kisses of the sun. This flaming girdle 

 of crystal, more beautiful a thousand times than the 

 most gorgeous opal, the sheen of a fresh-caught 

 mackerel, or the most radiant mother-of-pearl, I can 

 only compare in splendour to the flashing rainbows 

 formed over the foaming falls of the Zambesi, which 

 I have seen more than once. It ran horizontally 

 and very evenly round at least two-thirds of the 

 cliff-belt that encircled us. It was a wonderful and 

 amazing spectacle, and I think quite the most 

 singular of the many strange things (and they are 

 not few) I have seen in the African interior. 



"Well, we sat gazing at this crystal rainbow for 

 many minutes, till I had somewhat feasted my 

 enraptured gaze; then we got up, and at once 

 began the search for diamonds. Directly I saw the 

 gravel —especially where it had been cleansed in 

 the shallow spruits and dongas by the action of rain 

 and flood — I knew at once we should find ' stones ' ; 



