314 DIMINUTIVE BUSHES. — THUNDER SHOWER. 15, 16 Skpt. 
they had feasted more plentifully than usual, as the meat of the 
six elands had enabled the Hottentots to give them, almost for the 
first time on the journey, as much food as they could eat. 
We passed over a country rather flat, and clothed only with 
bushes, none of which exceeded a foot in height. I know not 
whether it may be said that the universally diminutive size of the 
bushes, which had been so often remarked, since leaving the Karro 
Poort, is a feature peculiar to the southern extremity of Africa ; 
but, certainly, it is one to which nothing in England has the least 
resemblance. Although so small, they are completely- ligneous 
plants, and more resemble trees in miniature, than shrubs. They 
seem, in fact, to constitute the character of all the dry hard plains 
which partake of the nature of Karro. Nothing deserving the name 
of tree, not even an Acacia, is to be seen between the Roggeveld 
mountain, and the Gar{ep,a distance of three hundred and sixty miles. 
We had scarcely travelled three miles before the lightning began 
to flash, and the most tremendous peals of thunder burst over our 
heads. In an instant, without perhaps more than one minute's notice, 
a black cloud which had formed suddenly, emptied its contents upon 
us, pouring down like a torrent, and drenching every thing with 
water. The parched earth became, in the short time of five minutes, 
covered with ponds. The rain ceased as suddenly as it came on ; 
leaving me both startled and surprised, at this specimen of an African 
thunder slioxver. We passed all at once from the deluged, to the 
arid and dusty ground ; the distance of thirty or forty yards being 
all that intervened between these extremes. Mention had often 
been made to me while in Cape Town, of the heavy thunder 
showers of the interior ; but their sudden violence far exceeded all 
that I had imagined. 
At a little after eight at night, we found ourselves in the midst 
of trees much taller than the waggons, a situation we had not been 
in during the last six weeks of the journey. These indicated our 
approach to the <j«nep.* After driving another half hour further, 
* This word, which is the aboriginal name, and signifies literally the river, is pro- 
nounced as two syllables with the accent upon the last ; the ie being a diphthong, and 
sounding as if written Gareep in English, or Garipe in French. 
