September.] BARREN TRACT OF COUNTRY. 333 
not being certain whether we had kept by the 
right road, and coming to some bushes an hour 
before midnight, we thought it prudent to halt 
till the dawn. Finding neither water nor grass, 
we departed at sunrise, and in two hours came 
to a small stream in the neighbourhood of a 
boor's place, where we rested among tall mi- 
mosa trees, but there being no grass, the oxen 
were forced to eat the bushes. 
We left this desert place at three p. m., and 
called at the boor s, as we passed, to make inqui- 
ries respecting the road. He lived in a small 
house made of reeds, plastered over with white 
clay, A huge ostrich walked about his premises, 
and seemed very tame. For four hours we tra- 
velled over an uneven country, and as barren as 
it is possible for the human mind to conceive, 
when we reached the Dweka River, among the 
mimosas on whose banks we pitched our tent. 
The therm, next day being at 88, we could not 
proceed till four p. m. After travelling over hills 
for six hours, we halted on the banks of the Blood 
River ; but why it was so called I could not learn. 
In the morning three waggons passed us that 
had come from the other side of the Black 
Mountains to the eastward, who reported that 
they had hardly found any grass in that direction. 
Therm, at noon 83. We left the Blood River at 
