1811. 
SINGULAR SCENERY AT KLIP FONTEIN. 
293 
river ; as we supposed that, by taking a new route, either to the right 
or the left, we should have a greater chance of falling in with water ; 
for it was known that, in the usual track, it was every where nearly 
dried up. There was no doubt that the natives, who daily roam in 
all directions, were acquainted with every spring ; and we even 
offered them as many live sheep as there were waggons in our 
caravan, if they would conduct us by a route in which water could 
be found at all seasons of the year. 
In the evening we reached Klip Fontein (Rock Fountain), and 
collected the waggons together on a stony level, just above the 
spring. 
9th. Daylight the next morning brought to view a desolate, 
wild, and singular landscape. From our station on the top of a 
steep descent, the mountains of the Karreebergen (Dry Mountains) 
appeared before us. The only color we beheld was a sterile brown, 
softened into azure or purple in the distance : the eye sought in vain 
for some tint of verdure ; nothing but rocks and stones lay scattered 
every where around. But that which rendered the view most re- 
markable, was the form of the mountains, presenting a multitude of 
flat, broad, level tops, and creating th,e idea of a congress of Table 
mountains. These were but a small part of the Karreebergen, a 
range which consists of an innumerable assemblage of mountains, all 
of this kind without exception, forming a belt across the country of 
from five to ten miles in breadth, and stretching out of sight on 
either hand, apparently in a north-westerly and south-easterly di- 
rection. Their extent is quite unknown, as they have never been 
traversed in any other part than that in which they were now 
crossed by us. 
I made a careful sketch of a portion of this view, including, in 
the foreground, a part of our caravan ; the various groups of which 
always formed both picturesque and interesting objects. 
After this I was obliged to dedicate a couple of hours to the 
business of putting dry paper to my botanical specimens ; which, 
being a mere mechanical employment, and recurring almost every 
