vey a just idea of its awful and terrific appearances. On this
uniform surface of perpetual sterility, on which nor tree nor
bush nor building nor any prominent point rises above the
dreary level to catch and conduct silently into the earth the
electric fluid, the flashes of lightning dart 7 / O O from cloud to cloud
in constant succession, filling the whole horizon with a blaze of
vivid fire, whilst the thunder, not deep but constant, hisses
and rattles without intermission. At the Gape of Good Hope
it is just the reverse. There lightning is rarely seen and thunder
scarcely heard ; the lofty and nearly perpendicular mass
o f roek, the Table mountain, carries off the electric shock
silently and almost imperceptibly to those who dwell on the
plain a t the foot of its base. After this stormy and comfortless
night passed on the naked earth, wet, hungry, and dejected,
the two travellers fell in with a small horde of Bosjesmans
feasting on locusts, which they broiled in a square hole made
an the ground, heated with hot ashes of wood. They were
not, however, sufficiently hungry to be induced to partake of
the repast, and these poor creatures had nothing in the world
besides to offer them. They therefore proceeded on their
inarch. The Hottentot who attended them had departed
in the night, in order to find out the waggons. Having
travelled the whole day, weary and fatigued and fainting
with hunger, they a t night again laid down on the bare clayey
surface, without the least shelter, exposed to heavy and incessant
rain. In the morning, being the third day in which
they had not tasted food, the gnawing pains of hunger became
so severe that they bethought themselves of killing the
beast of burden for their support. Their muskets, however,
would not give fire, nor could they draw them on account of
the wetness of the powder. They had no other instrument
but a small penknife which, though useless to them,
would have been quite sufficient for the purpose had the
Hottentot been present, as these natives are well acquainted
with the palsied state into which an animal falls-
by having the spinal marrow pierced with a pointed instrument.
The two secretaries happened, however, to be ignorant
of this operation; and the delay occasioned by suggestions
as to the best mode of accomplishing their point led
to many grievous and melancholy reflections: as the tor-
, ment that must necessarily ensue to the poor animal which
had so frequently carried them and their baggage;—the
inefficacy of the expedient, as drey were unable to carry
much of the flesh with t h e m a n d the great danger of their
remaining near a dead carcase on a desert abounding with
wild beasts as hungry as themselves.' They therefore determined
to give up the attempt; and tying their handkerchiefs-
tight round the belly, after the manner of the Hottentots, in
order to allay in some degree the gnawing pain of hunger,
they wandered hopeless and disconsolate over a wide and
desolate plain, surrounded on all’ sides by dreary solitude and
cheerless sterility, without a trace to guide their steps, or'
distant point to direct their course. While thus they were-
silently and slowly marching'along entirely at random,, young
Borcherds fancied he heard a distant noise- produced by
the cracking of a whip. They directed their steps towards-
the quarter from whence he supposed it to proceed; and
having travelled about a mile, they both distinctly heard a.
second crack. It was in fact a signal made by their companions,
who fortunately had remained stationary the whole