I 
18 TRAVELS IN 
I have already noticed, in my journey to the Namaaqua 
country, that clear subterraneous streams were every where 
to be found, in that district, under the sandy beds of the 
rivers. Water in abundance has always been found by dig- 
gius; wtHs in Cape Town. Indeed it would be an absurdity 
to suppose that, in a country where mountains abound, and 
those mountains for more than two-thirds of the year hid 
in dense clouds, there could be any scarcity of water. Pe- 
culiar circumstances, relating to situation or surface, may 
conceal that water, but it will always be discovered at or 
near the sea-coast. 
When the late Admiral Sir Hugh Christian ordered a well 
to be sunk at Saldanha Bay, by directing his attention rather 
to the convenience of conveying the water to the shipping, 
than to the certainty of obtaining it, he was led into an error 
in fixing upon the spot for the experiment, which was so 
high above the level of the bay, and wliere the ground was 
one solid mass of compact granite, that, after boring and 
blowing up with gunpowder, for several months, with little 
or no prospect of success, the operation was obliged to be 
abandoned. On the opposite side of the bay, where the 
shore is little elevated above the high water mark, several 
springs have spontaneously burst out of the earth ; but for 
want of being properly opened, so that the water may run 
off freely, they are suffered to stagnate, and become, as 
might be expected from the soil and climate, a little brackish. 
All circumstances here are fully as favorable as at Madras^ 
where the purest and best water is found close to the sea shore, 
6 
