152 APPENDIX. 
but that these very circumstances of greater uncertainty and 
danger do, in this case, preclude our aiming at the appa- 
rently barren honour of exciting wonder, and of throwing a 
partial and obscure light on an extended region; the Com- 
mittee therefore assume that the last-mentioned of the two 
courses is in all respects more accordant with the views and 
interests of the subscribers, as expressed in the prospectus ; 
the Committee therefore recommend that no endeavour be 
made to penetrate beyond the parallel of 20° south latitude, 
and that the attempt to reach that parallel be made only 
if, in the first place, circumstances favour it greatly; and, 
secondly, if the intervening districts do not afford objects of 
sufficient interest and importance to occupy the attention of 
the expedition. The territory limited by that boundary is 
about four times the extent of the British Islands. It is in 
truth to be anticipated, that the wide regions between the 
Cape Territory and the southern tropic will have sufficient 
extent and variety for the time and resources to be employed 
in our present undertaking. 
It will, therefore, be advisable that the expedition con- 
sider Klaar Water (Griqua Town), or Litakou, as the 
starting point or base of their operations, and that its first 
effort be the examination of the district from which issue the 
northern branches of the Gareep, and the streams which fall 
down to the Indian Ocean; that then the dividing ridge be 
traced towards the north, leaving it to the discretion of the 
director to determine at what parallel he should change 
his course, to the north or west. Our present infor- 
mation leads us to consider it advisable that the eastern 
side of the slope be examined first, in order that if the 
great desert of Challahenga should extend far to the east- 
ward, so as to bar the progress of the expedition towards the 
centre of the continent, there may remain the unexplored 
