152 
SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
scorching rays of a cloudless sun." Of the 
truth of this description, I soon had ocular 
demonstration. 
It is intersected by the Fish and Oup rivers, 
with their numberless tributary streams, if such 
their dry, and often glowing beds may be term- 
ed. Sometimes, for years together, they are not 
known to run ; when, after the stagnant pools 
are dried up, the natives congregate to their 
beds, and dig holes or wells, in some instances, 
to the depth of twenty feet ; from which they 
draw water, mostly of a very inferior quality. 
They place branches of trees in the excavation, 
and, with great labour, under a hot sun, hand 
up the water in a wooden vessel, and pour it 
into an artificial trough ; to which the panting 
herds can approach, partially to satiate their 
thirst. Thunder storms are eagerly anticipated, 
for in these only rain descends ; and frequently 
they will pass over with tremendous violence, 
striking the inhabitants with awe ; while not 
a single drop of rain falls to cool and fructiy 
the parched waste. 
When the refreshing and restoring element, 
however, does descend, it is generally in a partial 
strip of country, which the electric cloud has 
traversed ; so that the traveller will frequently 
pass, almost instantaneously, from ground, on 
which there is not a blade of grass, into tracts of 
