best of our way to the Brack River, when the storm had subsided, much enjoying the refreshing coolness which it had occasioned. On our route we disturbed a female ostrich from her nest, in which we found from twenty to thirty eggs, a number, however, frequently exceeded, and even doubled. It is much to be regretted that more attention is not paid to their preservation, the feathers of these birds being such a valuable article of export.

Within a short distance of Rooye Poorte we came up during the afternoon with a large herd of springboks; and Jacobs afterwards fancied, from the accelerated pace of the oxen, that they must have caught scent of a lion at no great distance. The next day we met a Trek Boor, with his cattle, who informed us that eleven lions had passed the day before in a troop, along the route we were pursuing.

The sun was very powerful, and the dry, scorching winds were almost suffocating. Here I sustained a severe shock from an unfortunate occurrence, which I shall ever remember with the most painful feelings of regret. While lying in my waggon, enfeebled by indisposition, I observed Cupido, the Bush-boy in the service of the farmer who accompanied us, spring from the foot-board, on our coming to a rough part of the road, as if to assist the driver, who had previously jumped down to guide the oxen. The boy being missed, after some time had elapsed, it was

supposed that he had gone to seek honey, with which the rocks in this neighbourhood abounded; and we reached the farmer's dwelling early in the afternoon, without having seen or heard of him. On the arrival, however, of the herdsman with the sheep some hours afterwards, he brought us the melancholy intelligence that the waggon, as he supposed, must have gone over the poor boy's head, and killed him on the spot, as he had found the body lying in the track, with the head crushed and dreadfully swollen. I was much affected by this distressing circumstance, which tended to increase the depression of spirits my indisposition had induced, and it was long ere I recovered the shock of that unhappy

accident.

On the following day we reached the farm of Stoffel Jacobs, where I remained nearly a week to recruit my strength, a measure the more necessary, as the weather continued excessively hot, and I had still a long journey to accomplish. I was lamenting to Jacobs how little I had added to my specimens of natural history on this excursion, when he said that I should not leave his house until he had procured for me a female gems-bok, Antilope oryx, which I had been very desirous to obtain. sons were accordingly dispatched to the plain with instructions, if they could find any of these antelopes, to use their endeavours to turn them in the direction of the farm. They had not been gone

His