200 
THE GEEAT TEEE-ALOE OF DAMAEA LAND. 
[Nature and Art, December 1, 1866. 
on the ground. After passing days and nights of 
mental anxiety, and after narrow escapes, that by 
their frequency had almost removed a sense of 
danger from the captain’s mind, the ship was 
wrecked on a lee shore. By almost a miracle, the 
captain, his wife and little daughter, and the crew 
were saved. But the scene of lawlessness at the 
wreck was something indescribable. Everybody 
began to “ rifle, rob, and plunder;” and such was 
the effect on the crew of the vessel, that, notwith- 
standing their recent escapes from peril, they joined 
in and plundered too. 
But the worst remains to be told. The captain’s 
wife and child, two helpless creatures, half dead 
with fright and cold, bewildered by the horrible 
dangers they had passed, and scared by the hellish 
sight and noises around them, stood benumbed in 
the snow and piercing wind. Their boots were 
taken from their feet and their wraps and coverings 
from their bodies, and in that state they might 
have perished. 
The captain resisted, and appealed in vain for 
help. He was powerless. The people believed 
that Providence had sent them another harvest. 
Should they not glean it while they could, and 
while they were permitted by the Island au- 
thorities 1 
Header, your patience is exhausted. We have 
redeemed the pledge we made you. Have we err 
listed your sympathy 'l 
THE GREAT TREE-ALOE OE DAMARA LAND, S. W. AFRICA. 
By T. Baines, F.E.G.S. 
I T was during the month of May, 1861, and 
about a fortnight after my first sight of the 
Welivitschia mirabilis ,* that I was privileged to 
behold another marvel of the vegetable kingdom, 
which I believe is not yet figured in any work 
available to the public of this country, nor contained 
in those which, by the kindness of Dr. J. Hooker 
and Professor Oliver, I have been permitted to 
examine in the herbarium of the Boyal Botanic 
Gardens at Kew. 
Leaving Hykamkop on the 10th, and halting to 
send the cattle down the long ravine at Oosip, again 
to seek a little water in the Swakopf river, we 
spanned out after a long night journey, near the 
Roode-berg, j; where, on the 11th, the rising sun 
showed that the soil began to be scantily veiled 
with small narrow-leafed white grass, which, though 
nearly invisible when we looked straight down upon 
it, showed, like the mirage, in greater strength 
when the eye glanced along the distant plain ; and 
with the heavy dew sparkling upon it, reminded 
me in some degree of hoar-frost upon the fields in 
England. As the mist cleared off, we saw the bold 
outline of the Roocle-berg, its peaks barren as they 
had appeared the day before, but its sides slightly 
tinted by scanty grass, dwarf aloes and bushes, 
scattered among the enormous boulders. We ex- 
pected shortly to reach Tineas, the reputed head- 
quarters of the lions, where at one time the spoor 
of as many as eighteen together had been seen, and 
at another a traveller had encountered a number, 
“ sitting across his path,” and by no means too eager 
to get out of his way ; and where, in sober reality, 
the drivers considered it unsafe to walk beside the 
waggon after dark, lest a lion following, in hope of 
picking up a disabled ox, should spring upon them. 
* For description and drawing of this plant, see Nature 
and Art, No. 3. 
f Or Schwagoup ; from a Hottentot word signifying 
fatness. Not Swartkop. 
J Pronounced Bdoee-beerg (the Eed Mountain). 
With so hopeful a prospect, I thought it as well to 
spend an hour or two in getting my hand in to the 
manufacture of cartridges for my rifle. Shortly 
after noon, the friends whom we had left behind 
upon the road from Walvisch Bay, came up, and 
Mr. Cator invited me to his waggon, from which 
Mr. Smutz soon after pointed out two remarkable 
pinnacles in the distant range, which have been 
called “the Ears” of almost every resident of any 
importance in the country ; but as this would 
suggest rather a Midas-lilce comparison, I should 
prefer to name them, as Cator did, “Westminster 
Abbey.” 
But beautiful upon the mountains, as were the 
warm grey tints and soft pearly shadows of the 
distance, a treasure more estimable far, lay unsus- 
pected by me, in the bare granite mound beside us. 
As the loose cattle turned from the path and 
streamed up its sides, I thought they were but 
taking a nearer cut ; but when the dogs returned 
with dripping jaws, and the men with well-filled 
barrels, I knew that this must be the water I had 
heard of. In the top of that low mound was a 
large, and nearly circular hollow, retaining the 
water of the last rains. I determined at once to 
remain and devote the rest of the daylight to the 
completion of my sketch, in which this jewel of the 
desert became the prominent object, and the distant 
ranges the accessories ; my friends considerately 
leaving a Darnara to carry my gun and sketch- 
book. At sunset Onesimus arrived, reporting that 
his cattle were unable to draw the waggon further. 
A sheep was slaughtered on the spot, and, as all 
hands had been on short commons for the last two 
days, supper was soon extemporized. Next morning 
I walked ahead, the path winding between blocks 
of weathered granite, some of which seemed as if 
an infant’s touch could launch them down to 
bar the narrow pass. As the country opened, 
the vegetation improved, and frequent bushes of 
Euphorbia were seen, with green rod-like leaves, of 
