1812. 
A SINGULAR PHENOMENON. 
27 
contrivance a quantity of sucli small roots are collected in a much 
shorter time than could possibly be done by digging them up singly 
with the stick. 
Just as we were beginning to pack up our baggage, we were 
suddenly surprised by a sound from a distance, which all of us believed, 
or rather fancied, to be the report of a musket. Thinking it might 
possibly be a signal from some one sent after us by captain Berends, 
we fired a gun in answer ; but as no reply was made, I sent off 
Speelman, Daniel, and Hendrik in -that direction to reconnoitre, and 
ascertain if any person with fire-arms was on that side. But in less 
than an hour they returned without discovering any traces of strangers ; 
and we at last were satisfied that we had mistaken the sound. Yet 
I continued, for a day or two, a little uneasy at the circumstance, 
until convinced that it could only be a mistake ; since no stranger 
could come into the country of the Bushmen, without his arrival 
being immediately known to them. 
We had at this time advanced much beyond the farthest point 
to which the Klaarwater Hottentots had ever extended their hunt- 
ings ; and Hans and Cobus, the most experienced of our party, con- 
sidered that we were now on unexplored ground. We became 
therefore the more watchful and observant of every occurrence con- 
nected with our safety and success. 
We departed from Drde-doorn station at eight in the morning, 
and continued our course over a plain as level and boundless as the 
ocean, excepting on the west, where the rocky mountains near Mod- 
der-gat interrupted the evenness of the horizon ; and before us, 
where the Nappika mountain, and the very distant summits of the 
Hyena mountains, presented a faint object on which the sight could 
rest. These latter are distinguished by the natives, with a name of 
correspondent import in their language, but which in our hurry I 
neglected writing down. 
I here, for the first time, had an opportunity of observing that 
singular phenomeno)i and optical illusion, of the appearance of 
water, which has often been seen in the deserts of Northern Africa. 
• It exactly resembled a distant and extensive lake, receding from us 
E 2 
