102 A BEAUTIFUL MOONLIGHT. 



We left this station late in the afternoon, Mr. de 

 Clerk kindly lending us a span of oxen, and sending a 

 Hottentot to bring them back from our next halting- 

 place. We were soon overtaken by night, but the 

 bright lustre of the moon was more than an equiva- 

 lent for the loss of daylight. The beauty of a moon- 

 light night in this part of the world surpasses de- 

 scription. When the moon rises, her beams cast a 

 subdued splendour over the finest landscapes in na- 

 ture, softening their asperities, and investing their 

 sublimer features with a tranquil glory ; while the 

 stars spangling the ethereal vault diffuse over it a 

 radiance of inconceivable brilliancy. 



Travelling the greater part of the night, we were 

 enabled to enjoy the romantic scenery everywhere 

 surrounding us, and found ourselves, on halting, 

 within a day's journey of the village of Beaufort. On 

 approaching it in the morning, we were much im- 

 pressed with the grandeur of the Nieuw-veld moun- 

 tains, an elevated chain, towards which the desert 

 rises with a fine swell clearly perceptible to the eye, 

 and the summits of which are covered with snow to 

 a considerable depth during several months in the 

 year. These and the Sneeuwberg Mountains are 

 said to be the highest in Southern Africa, some of 

 them being from seven to eight thousand feet above 

 the level of the sea. 



Overtaking seven other waggons, close by Beaufort, 

 on their way to the Nieuw-veld district, we joined 



