06 
ROUSING A LION. 
12, 13 Sept. 
the rest were still waiting, and, having one Hottentot waggon in 
company, proceeded at a slow pace in advance, expecting soon to be 
overtaken. For the purpose of guiding them, a lantern with a light 
was placed as a beacon at the hinder part of my waggon. 
At a little after midnight I passed Jonkers Water (Yonker's 
Water), a place where, excepting in such dry seasons, the traveller 
may quench his thirst. Beyond here the road became more stony 
as we advanced. The whole of the party did not overtake me till 
between two and three o'clock in the mornino;. 
13th. Two Hottentots, with their waggons, were hastening on 
a-head of us, that they might be the first to get to the water ; but we 
had not missed them long after the first dawn of twilight, before one 
of them came back in a great hurry for help to drive out of their 
road a huge lion, which they perceived lying before them just in 
their road. They had endeavoured to rouse him up, yet were them- 
selves too much alarmed to fire, lest, through the dubious light, 
they might unfortunately miss their aim, and he should return the 
compliment by springing upon them. Although the beast would 
not oblige them by getting out of their way, he favoured them with 
a roar, which had the effect of making them halt till we came up ; 
when the noise of so many waggons approaching, caused him to move 
off without molesting us. 
By degrees, as the day-light came on, and enabled me to dis- 
tinguish what kind of country we were passing through, I noticed 
that about this part the geological nature of it began to assume a very 
different character. I saw in many places the tops of Quartz rocks, 
peeping out of the ground, and the sharp jagged points of vertical 
strata of a hard black rock. In one spot I remarked a large mass of 
cellular stone, having the appearance of ' honeycomb-stone,' yet not 
volcanic. During the last three hundred and twenty miles, the 
geological character remained essentially the same ; and the daily 
recurrence of the same substances and forms, occasioned a great 
want of interest in this department of observation. Through the 
whole of the Roggeveld and Bushman Country, I had seen no quartz 
till now. This was the first indication of a change in the soil, and in 
