304 
BIRDS SINGING IN THE NIGHT. 
12 Sept. 
and began to assume a redder hue, which was particularly remarkable 
in a low, sandy mound close by the water. * 
Here, in the dead of the night, I heard the soft warbling of 
some bird, whose wild notes afforded me the greater delight, and 
seemed the sweeter, from breaking forth so unexpectedly in the 
cheerless waste, and recalling to me, in the midst of a scene so 
different, the plaintive nightingale. At the Karree and Sack rivers, I 
once or twice heard, also in the middle of the night, the sanie singing. 
The latitude was found to be 30° 20' 47." f The weather now 
became fair, and the sky cloudless. From nine in the morning, 
to one in the afternoon, the thermometer rose from 64° (17°*7 C.) to 
76° (24°-4 C). 
Having stopped at Buffel-bout no longer than was absolutely 
necessary for resting the cattle and allowing them time to browse, 
we commenced another long day's journey, or, rather, two day's 
journeys in one, over plains of boundless extent, and little variety of 
surface. For the first three miles the soil was sandy, and of a red 
color, abounding in a species of grass [Foa) eighteen inches high, the 
stalks and leaves of which were at this time dead and quite withered. 
On exploring this, several new and curious plants were found ; among which 
were • 
Lessertia annularis. B. Catal. Geog. 
1597. Planta erecta palmaris. 
Legumen, in formam annuli com- 
planati contractum. 
Polygala pmigens. B. Catal. Geog. 
1598. Fruticulus pedalis erectus 
sub-aphyllus, ramificatiohe divari- 
cata. Ramuli teretes glauci rigidi ; 
omnes in spinam acutam desinentes. 
" Folia linearia acutiuscula ramulo 
angustiora. Calycis foliola 2 ma- 
jora albida venis viridibus picta. 
Crista purpurascens. Legumen ob- 
cordatum. Flores in racemulis 
2 — i-floris. 
Sisymbi'ium 
Mahernia 
Capraria F 
Chrysocoma, 2 sp. 
Convolmlus 
Anthericum 
Gnaphaliim 
Poa 
Hermannia 
Cynoglossum echinatum 
Ferraria undulata 
Th. 
Meeting with this 
at so great a distance from all those 
where it has hitherto been 
is a remarkable circura- 
places 
found, 
stance. 
f 12th September, at Buffel-bout, the observed meridional altitude of the sun's upper 
limb was 55° 27' 38". 
