88 
TRAVELS IN 
bullocks of Africa are accuftomed to brouze for want of grafs : 
not a blade of any kind had appeared fince we entered upon 
the defert ; and fhrubbery was very thinly fcattered over the 
furface, except in the neighbourhood of the few fprings that 
here and there occurred. At this place were the remains of a 
hut and a folitary oak overhanging a fpring of clear water. 
Even thefe objedts ferved, in fome degree, to enliven, and to 
break, the uniformity of a barren defart. To the fouthward, 
alfo, now began to appear the blue fummits of that barren 
chain of mountains, mentioned in the preceding Chapter under 
the name of Zoaarteberg. A butcher of the Cape pafFed our 
encampment with about five hundred head of cattle and five 
thoufand fheep that he had purchafed in the Sneuwberg, or 
fnowy mountains. The fheep were in tolerable good condi- 
tion ; but the cattle were miferably poor. As the greateft 
part of the beeves that are killed at the Gape mufl travel from 
GraafF Reynet acrofs this defart, it cannot be a matter of fur- 
prife that the Cape beef fhould be univerfally complained 
againft. The knife is generally put into them the moment 
they arrive from a journey of forty or fifty days, in which, 
befide the fatigue of travelling, they have been expofed to the 
fcorching rays of the fun at one feafon of the year, and the 
intenfe cold of the nights in the other, without any kind of 
fhade or fhelter ; without any kind of food but the fait, acrid, 
and watery leaves of the different fucculent plants that almoft 
exclufively grow on the Karroo ; fometimes whole days with- 
out a drop of water, and moft commonly fuch only as is 
muddy and faline : fometimes their hoofs become fo tender by 
travelling upon the hot fand and gravel, that they are obliged 
to 
