23S TRAVELS IN 
which I preferved them was a flat light hdje 
made of deal, which I placed above the crown 
of my hat ; and in order that it might be car- 
ried the more commodioufly, it was, like the 
hat itfelf, of a round form, and fecured a& 
well as fliaded by the oftrich-feathers with 
which I was accuftomed to ornament my 
head. 
More fatisfied with what I had colleded 
than with the immenfe provifion of oil made 
by my Hottentots, I returned to my tenf, 
which had been guarded in my abfence by one 
of my people. Having feen by the way, 
among the fand-hllls, a confiderable quantity 
of the dung of elephants ; I was induced to 
believe that thefe animals muft abound in this 
diftrid, and that the river had not unjuftly ac- 
quired its name from them. None of the dung 
was indeed frefh ; but I concluded from this 
circumftance that the elephants ufually fre* 
quented the right bank of the river, and that, 
forced at this feafon by the drought to quit a 
fpot that was now become barren, they had 
crofled over to the left, which I fuppofed to be 
lefs parched. 
Thefe, however, were only conjectures ; and 
: proba-» 
