AFRICA. 
and we found another refource in my goats, 
as their milk was not yet dried up. 
The heavy and continued rains we experi- 
enced, when proceeding along the banks of 
the Elephants- River, had not extended to- the 
diftria of Oliphants-Kop ; or, at leaft, if any 
had fallen here, as the cavities of the rock 
feemed to indicate, the quantity had been too 
fmall to produce any vifible effedl on vege- 
tation. 
The country everywhere around exhibited 
the moit frightful fterility, nor did any thing 
feem to indicate a change. To the weft was 
an immenfe plain, which, extending perhaps 
to the fea, prefented, as far as the eye could 
reach, an uniform fheet of dry earth, interfperfed 
here and there with a few oily plants only, 
and fome withered and ftunted buflies. At 
the, eaft a long ridge of naked mountains 
gloomily bounded the horizon ; and, in fhort, 
filence, drearinefs, and defolation, prevailed on 
all fides. 
In a fituation lefs deplorable I had formerly 
been indebted for my fafety to a bird, which, 
alighting upon a rock, had given me reafon to 
conclude that it might contain water; and I 
T 4 expeded 
