August.] GUNPOWDER FOUNTAINS. 
285 
our course was changed to N. E. by E. The 
soil, a pale red kind of sand, was thinly covered 
with withered grass. At three p. m. we unyoked 
the oxen to refresh them at two mineral springs, 
as they would not have another opportunity 
of drinking till the next day. The people 
pronounced the waters to be filthy, and 
Kok said the springs tasted strongly of gun- 
powder, a flavour which I think they certainly 
possessed, occasioned, without doubt, by the 
quantity of sulphur with which they are impreg- 
nated. The water ran down the valley for a few 
hundred yards, and then disappeared in the 
sand. The ground around consisted of clay and 
stones of a verdigris colour. Saltpetre also ap- 
peared strewed about in all directions. We dis- 
tinguished these springs by the appellation of 
Gunpowder Fountains. Similar water, we were 
informed, could be obtained by digging in any 
part of the valley. We saw a few ostriches 
feeding in the vicinity, and the dogs killed a 
jackal very near the springs. After leaving Gun- 
powder Fountains we passed, on our right, a pool 
of salt water, at the side of which three wolves 
were feeding on the remains of some animal, but 
they retired at our approach. At five p.m. the 
bed of a salt-lake, of three or four miles circum- 
ference, suddenly presented itself to our view, 
covered with a thick crust of salt, but destitute 
of water. Our waggons descended, and tra- 
velled along its side to a small spring of fresh 
