252 TRAVELS IN 
grizzled greenish tint, with a straight tail, a third longer than 
the body, and black at the extremity ; a horizontal white line 
across the forehead, just above the eyes; cheeks bearded 
with whitish hair. But the most fascinating object that pre- 
sented itself to our observation in the kloof was a plant of 
the lilliaceous tribe, with undulate ensiform leaves ; the 
flower-stalk was six feet high, and an inch in diameter, sup- 
portitig an umbel that consisted of twenty to thirty flowrets ; 
the petals, striped on the outside with red and white, were 
within of a clear snowy whiteness ; the antherae were of a 
bright crimson color. 
On returning to our waggons and directing our course east- 
erly, we rounded the mountains of the above-mentioned kloof^ 
by which means we approached the Orange river, where, 
with an easy current, it flowed through a level part of the 
country. We soon found, however, that it was impossible 
for the waggons to proceed far in this direction, and that in. 
very few places they could be brought near the banks of the 
river. We therefore took to our horses, and followed the 
windings of the river four days, in the hope of meeting with 
a ford where it was passable by the waggons. The first day 
the water had subsided near two feet perpendicularly, and it 
continued to fall for three successive days ; but on the fourth 
an end was put to every hope of crossing, by a sudden sweli- 
ing of tlie water to a greater height tiian that at which it 
stood when vv^e first approached it. The mountains also, 
iamong which it pushed its current, began now to be so 
rugged, that the banks were seldom accessible even on horse- 
back. Nothing therefore remained for us but to return to 
