NAMACQUA LAND. 
445 
In ascending; it, the wheels nearlv sunk to the axle. 
Every one aided them with all his might. Thermometer 
at sun-rise 46. Halted at seven, A.M. after continuing 
fifteen hours in motion, without water. Wherever the 
eye turned there was nothing but the perfection of 
sterility: the hills appeared a brown burnt colour, 
and the plain was deep sand, strewed with tufts of - 
withered grass. The consideration of being so far 
from any cooling stream or fountain of water, no 
doubt added to the gloominess of that desert, to 
which there was no visible termination. Adam Kok, 
a captain of the Griquaas once nearly lost his life 
in crossing the same desert. Two horses which he 
rode died, and he would have died likewise, had not 
some who accompanied him persevered in throwing 
cold sand on his breast till he reached water. 
While I was sitting in a retired corner under a rock, 
a little pretty solitary bird hopped around me, within 
a yard's distance, unconscious of danger from the 
human species, I did nothing to injure our character 
in its estimation. Mankind must be a rare sight to 
an inhabitant of such a desert. It seemed to come as 
if on purpose to divert my attention from the dreary 
scene before me ; if so, it effected its purpose, for the 
sight of it led to a train of thought very different. 
Departed from the range of rocks where we had 
halted to rest ourselves and oxen, at noon, when the 
thermometer was 76. We had been travelling in deep 
sand all day. The lowing of the oxen and the howling of 
