SOUTHERN AFRICA. -89 
tended horizon presenting to the eye a melancholy picture 
of cheerless desolation. No quadrupeds, except our own 
exhausted oxen, not a bird, nor even an insect appeared. A 
total suspension of the vivifying principle seemed to prevail 
on every side, and all traces of anuiiated nature appeared to 
have fled from the dreary waste. With such a prospect, 
and under such a situation, the oppressed mind sickened, 
and was ready to sink under a 
« secret dread and inward horror 
" Of falling into nought." 
One single hope only now remained, and that was fixed 
upon De Beer valley. This place we knew to be a kind of 
reservoir, in which a number of periodical streams had their 
confluence from various parts of the distant mountains of 
Nieuwveld, Winterberg, and Sneuwberg. The distance from 
our present situation to it was not very far, but our cattle 
were exceedingly exhausted ; and had long expressed their 
suffering by hollow lowings, and the sheep by their perpetual 
bleating. The children also of the Hottentots who were with 
us cried incessantly for water. 
The appearance of De Beer valley, from a distance, in- 
dicated no want of water ; it was that of a beautiful green 
meadow; and the cattle, and the horses, and the Hotten- 
tots, the moment it caught the eye, scampered away towards 
it in full career. Those in the waggons were not behind the 
rest. Their looks and manner, on arriving at the spot, suf- 
ficiently expressed the disappointment they felt on finding 
the beds of the pools and the rivers all perfectly dry. In 
VOL, I. p p 
