116 SPRING-BOKS. 



time they were busily engaged in making butter for 

 the Beaufort market, where they generally obtained 

 two skillings, or fourpence halfpenny, per pound. 



Leaving this respectable couple, we proceeded to 

 Stettenbosch Vlei, where we remained an hour or 

 two to refresh our oxen, and then continued our 

 journey along the outskirts of the Groote Karroo. 

 The character of the surrounding country was wild in 

 the extreme. During our route on the ensuing day, 

 we saw a troop of ostriches, the camel-birds of the 

 desert, scouring the arid plain ; and shortly after- 

 wards the Hottentot driver discovered a large herd 

 of spring-boks feeding at some distance, which, 

 from the ground they covered, must have amounted 

 in number to seven or eight thousand, being one of 

 those migratory swarms that bring, like the locusts, 

 destruction in their course. Observing our approach, 

 they began to wind off round a range of low hills 

 near the middle of the plain ; upon which we changed 

 our route, and rode on unnoticed, under cover of the 

 rising ground, until, by crossing a low neck of land, 

 we came suddenly in full view of them. The whole 

 herd turned, and gazed intently upon us as we ap- 

 proached them ; then suddenly curving their bodies 

 and depressing their heads, which had just before been 

 boldly erect, they started off simultaneously, bound- 

 ing across the desert with the speed of a whirl- 

 wind, and expanding the narrow fold of white hair 

 over their haunches : from which circumstance they 



