462 - ' NAMACQUA LAND. 
[1813. 
a few minutes. All was silence around, all employed 
in sheltering themselves from the sun s scorching rays, 
the best way they could. The crows were walking 
about our waggons as if we had all been dead. Ther- 
mometer at five P.M. 99' At sunset, 95, None of 
our company had ever been in this part of Africa 
before. At five P.M. we departed, ascending and 
descending hills until three o'clock in the morning, 
when we halted at Foul Fountain, whose waters smell 
very offensively. 
6th. The approach of light discovered a boor s empty 
house standing near our waggons, the boor only living 
there during the rainy season, which he leaves when 
the grass is eaten up. It was to us a shadow from the 
heat during the day, yet it was very warm even there, 
for though it had neither doors nor windows to shut, 
the thermometer in it at noon was 9^, in the covered 
waggon 101. One of our oxen was so worn out with 
the journey, the heat, and the bad water, that it was 
not able to proceed, but we left him under the care 
of two Hottentots to endeavour to get him forward. 
Being on a height we were exposed to the wind, 
which blew as hot as steam from the N.W. however, 
had we been lower down, the heat must have been 
greater. Our oxen looked poorly, which made us 
doubt their ability to carry us over the desert to 
Elephants River, but whatever might happen, no 
assistance could be obtained as the land is forsaken. 
