MAY.] 
BUSHMEN^S COUNTRY. 
193 
which our dogs pursued without success. Though 
there was no grass, yet there was plenty of the bush- 
man s plant on the way. It is a bulbous root, about 
the size of a crocus, and resembling it in appearance ; 
when roasted, it tastes like the roasted chesnut. By 
the bushmen it is called Ok ; by the Hottentots, Ow. 
I partook of some which our bushman had roasted, 
and liked them very much. 
This part of Africa, without a miracle, must, for 
want of water, remain a wilderness to the end of 
time ; it cannot be inhabited, though its general ap- 
pearance is charming. 
At ten A.M. we came to a narrow path made by 
quachas, who travel, as wild ducks fly, in a line, 
one behind the other. We hoped this path would 
lead us to a fountain, but in less than a mile it became 
invisible. 
For the last three days we had been gradually 
ascending, but we appeared now to have reached the 
summit, from which there is a very extensive pro- 
spect, for at least sixty miles before us, and we judged 
it likely that we should continue to descend until we 
reached the Great River. Thermometer at noon w^as 
68 ; at one P.M. it rose to 80 ; and at two, it was 80. 
Pretty well in the middle of an African winter ! 
Our bushman was generally asleep after joining us, 
except when eating ; but he was now running with 
c c 
