164 
TRAVELS IN 
On the morning of the 29th of Auguft we left the Zwart- 
kop's river, and, proceeding to the eaftward about twenty 
miles, croffed a ford of the Sunday river, and encamped upon 
its bank. At this place it was broad and deep, and without any 
perceptible current. The whole channel of the river was buried 
in thick woods that extended forty or fifty yards from the mar- 
gin of the water upon each bank. The trees confifted chiefly 
of the Karroo mimofa, a fpecies of rhus, and a narrow-leafed 
willow. The water was confiderably impregnated with fait. 
At the feet of the hills, indeed, near which it flowed, were 
numbers of heaps of a white faline fubflance light and frothy ; 
and from the under furfaces of the projeding rtrata of rotten 
fand-ftone were fufpended a great quantity of faline ftala£lites, 
whofe bafes were tinged green, perhaps from their being 
impregnated with a folution of copperas or green vitriol. 
On the banks of this river we were difturbed in the night, 
for the firft time, by a troop of elephants that had intended to 
quench their thirft near the place where we were encamped ; 
butj finding the ground already occupied, they turned quietly 
away without molefting us. The following morning we pur- 
fued them by the track of their feet into an extenfive thick 
foreft of brufhwood, among which feveral made their appear- 
ance at a diftance ; but we were not lucky enough to kill any 
of them. 
The following day we travelled near thirty miles over a wild 
uninhabited part of the country, covered chiefly with fhrubby 
plants 
