NAM AQUALAND • 
153 
luxuriant green, which have sprung up as the 
result of a passing storm. Fountains are seldom 
to be met with, the best being very inconsider- 
able; frequently very salt; and some of them 
hot springs; while the soil contiguous is so im- 
pregnated with salt-petre, as to make it crackle 
under the feet like hoar-frost, and it is with 
great difficulty that any kind of vegetable can 
be produced. Much of the country is hard and 
stony, interspersed with plains of deep sand. 
There is much granite, and quartz is so abun- 
dantly scattered, and reflects such a glare of 
light from the rays of the sun, that the travel- 
ler, if exposed at noon-day, can scarcely allow 
his eyelids to be sufficiently open to enable him 
to keep the course he wishes to pursue. 5 ' 
The recent accounts furnished of these tracts, 
by Sir J. Alexander, Mr. Archbell, and others, 
who have visited them, from time to time, all 
coincide in confirming this parched character 
and sterility, as belonging to INamaqualand. 
They also represent it as one of the least in- 
viting, and most uninteresting parts of Southern 
Africa. 
The banks of some of the rivers in it, in 
which water seldom flows, may be traced, in 
their winding courses, by acacias ; the timber 
of which is of the poorest description. Ebony 
trees also grow, thinly scattered in the imme- 
