ms and
still stranger colours, on our right.

As it happened, we were exceptionally fortunate in our exploration on
this occasion, for we had not ridden more than six miles when, issuing
from the northern slope of the mountain, the base of which we had been
skirting, we discovered another rivulet, very similar in character to
that near which we had left the wagon outspanned, and upon tasting the
water we found it to be deliciously sweet and cool; moreover, the stream
was flowing northward, or precisely in the direction toward which we
wished to travel. We followed the course of the stream for a distance
of some four miles down the valley, and then, finding that it continued
to flow northward, and showed a tendency to increase in volume, being
fed by other small brooks flowing into it here and there, we turned our
horses' heads and cantered back to the wagon, very well satisfied with
the result of our ride.

Inspanning at dawn the next morning, we easily accomplished the trek
from the headwaters of the stream we were leaving behind us to those of
the stream which we intended to follow before the heat of the day had
fairly set in, outspanning at length, about eleven o'clock in the
morning, in a nicely wooded, shady valley, which gradually widened as we
progressed, with the stream on our left and rising ground on both sides
of us. Here we allowed the oxen to rest and graze for nearly three
hours, resuming our journey about half-past two o'clock in the
afternoon.

As usual, Piet and I, on horseback and accompanied by the two dogs,
preceded the wagon, the pace of the horses, even at a walk, being so
much faster than that of the slower-moving oxen that we generally
managed to find ourselves at least two or three miles ahead by the time
that a suitable spot for the next outspan was reached. But upon this
occasion I was desirous of exploring our route for some little distance
ahead; therefore, upon mounting, we put our horses into an easy canter,
and soon left the wagon out of sight and hearing behind us. Proceeding
in this fashion, with an occasional rein-up to breathe our horses, we
found ourselves, in the course of an hour and a half, about ten miles
from our starting-point, in the midst of a beautifully wooded, park-like
plain about five miles in width, with the stream, now considerably
augmented in volume, purling musically over a shingly bed on the eastern
margin of the plain, and the high land, rising by this time