2i6 TRAVELS IN 
infplred me, its waters were foon rendered tur^ 
bid by my Hottentots and cattle. With regard 
to the grotto, the infcriptions, the creeping 
ftirubs hanging in feftoons, all thefe like a dream 
vaniflied on our approach. I faw only a large 
cavern, which ferved to flielter me and my 
caravan* It was fpacious and lofty ; and, being 
open at the eaft, we were covered without be^ 
ing (hut up in it. Situated upon afmall mount, 
it overlooked on one fide my camp and the 
plain, which, by the uniform and dreary pro- 
fpedt it prefented, filled me with melancholy 
and difcouragement ; and on the other was 
joined to an immenfe chain of dry mountains, 
extending irx the form of an amphitheatre, the 
nakednefs of which, and the different tints of 
ochre, grey, and white, with which they were 
variegated, exhibited a view at once terrifying 
and majeftic. The remains of a habitation, 
now fallen into ruins, attefted that the proprie- 
tor had been long forced to abandon this wild 
^nd unprodudive wafte. I made preparations 
for paffing the night in the grotto ; but I was 
obliged to fhare it with jackdav/s and wood- 
pigeons which repaired to it at the clofe of the 
day, and perched in huQdred3 on a tree, the 
root§ 
