546 
HEAVY RAINS. — RED MUD. 
17, J 8 Feb. 
in reply to my enquiries respecting the nature of the country on the 
other side of the river, agreed in their information, that on the 
southern side of the Gariep there was a river which appeared to 
come a considerable distance from the southward. I therefore de- 
cided on following the course of this river, as far as it should be 
found to follow the direction in which I intended to travel. This 
plan, therefore, would oblige me once more to return to the Kloof, 
as this village lay in our road towards that river ; and it was, in con- 
sequence, arranged that the party should there assemble in order to 
make the final preparations for the journey. 
When we came to that part of the road where the morning's 
rain had fallen, the red clayey and loamy ground, which in dry 
weather has all the hardness of rock, was found to be a complete 
mud, and so deep, that for the space of six miles, the oxen had the 
greatest difficulty in dragging the waggon over it. This mud ad- 
hered so firmly to the wheels, that when it had become perfectly 
dry it was not easy to scrape it away, but remained like a coating of 
hard red stucco, and required several days travelling to wear it off. 
We passed innumerable ponds of rain-water which had been formed 
within the last two days. 
The night being fine, we continued our way till the moon had 
nearly set ; and at about half past nine, unyoked for the night at a 
rain-water pond, in a spot where the oxen stood up to their knees 
in the midst of abundance of the most delightful grass. 
ISth. Close to my waggon, in the morning, I remarked a plant 
growing over the bushes, which, at a little distance might, from its 
growth, and the color and shape of its flowers, be mistaken for an 
Aristolochia ; but which, on nearer examination, proving to be an 
Apocyneous plant of a new and singular genus *, I made a drawing 
* Systrepha Jilifoi'me, B. Cat. Geog. 2092. Radix fasciculata, tuberis fusiformibus 
succulentis albis. Caulis volubilis filiformis. Folia linearia. Pedunculus axillaris bi- 
florus. Calyx 5-pliyllus, foliolis subulatis. Corolla tubulosa basi globoso-inflata, apice 
5-fida, laciniis longissimis, erectis elegantissime in forma coronas imperialis, contortis. 
Tubus cylindricus nigro-purpureo punctatus. Nectaria 5 bifida, erecta linearia obtusa. 
