AFRICA. 323 
found ill fome of the deepeft parts of its bed. 
At the break of day we haftened to quit this 
difagreeable place, and, after a march of three 
hours and a half, we fell in with another river, 
named Birds river, where I remarked, among 
other fingularities, that the more v/e ap- 
proached the fnow mountains the more in- 
tenfe the heat became. The piles of rocks 
which compofed their lofty peaks, heated no 
doubt by the fcorching fun, refleded his rays 
and concentred them in the neighbouring 
valleys. As the whole caravan were much 
incommoded on this account, it was not 
poffible for us to proceed any farther. 
In the {hort fpace which we had traverfed 
betv/een the one river and the other, we met 
only one flock of fpring-boc antelopesj but I 
may fiy that it filled the whole plain. It 
was an emigration of which v/e faw neither 
the beginning nor the end. This was precifely 
the feafon when thefe animals quit the dry 
rocky regions of the extremity of Africa to 
repair towards the north, either to CafFraria, 
or fome other v/oody country abounding with 
water. To attempt to number them, or to 
fay that they amounted to twenty, thirty, or 
even fifty thoufand, 1 fhould be very far 
Y 2 from 
