14 July, 1811. DOORN RIVER. — ROADS OF THE KARRO. 
211 
tinued travelling long after it became dark ; but the dry atmosphere 
of the Karro was so exceedingly clear from vapors, that an infinite 
multitude of sparkling stars enabled us easily to see our way, till we 
reached the Kleine Doom (Little Thorn) river, where we halted for 
the night. Several graziers were at this time stationed here, with 
their waggons, cattle, and families. 
15th. On the next morning they paid us a visit ; and if they 
derived any news or information from us, it was more than we did 
from them ; so very uninformed, or so little communicative, did this 
party seem to be. Yet, in these wilds, but little used to converse 
with strangers, it is possible that their taciturnity might be the effect 
rather of timidity than of natural dullness. 
The Doorn-rivier takes its name from the trees of Doom-boom 
that grow on its banks : a name equally applicable to every other 
river in the Karro, and, indeed, to the greatest number of the rivers, 
not only in the colony, but in the whole of Southern Africa, as far as 
I have been. All the rivers crossed in the following part of my 
journey, to its farthest extent northward, take a westerly course, 
and discharge their waters into the Southern Atlantic Ocean. 
In the afternoon we departed from Little Thom-river, having 
warm and exceedingly agreeable weather. The excellence of the 
roads, in many parts of these plains, cannot be surpassed : a clayey 
soil, washed level and smooth by frequent thunder-showers, and after- 
wards hardened and baked by the heat of the sun, forms a strong floor, 
on which the wheels of a waggon leave little or no impression ; and 
on which eight oxen are found to be a sufficient team. These African 
roads are, however, nothing more than the space cleared from shrubs 
and plants, by the passing and repassing of waggons. Those of the 
Karro are mostly worn a few inches below the general surface of the 
plain. In one part of this day's journey, the soil was a very deep, 
loose, yellow sand, in which we were much annoyed by dust. 
I now gathered, for the first time, specimens of a very 
extraordinary grass. * Its panicle of flowers formed a bunch of 
* Poa spinosa. 
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