their summits.

The basis of the country was sandstone, on which clay rested in a thin
layer, and on this clay the sandy ridges reposed.

We overtook Mr. Browne about half an hour before sunset, and all halted
together, when the men had completed their tenth mile.

On the 1st of August we did not find the country so heavy or so wet as it
had been. It was indeed so open and denuded of every thing like a tree or
bush, that we had some difficulty in finding wood to boil our tea. In the
afternoon when we halted the men had chained 46 miles on the new bearing,
but as yet we could not see any range or hill to the westward.

About two hours before we halted Mr. Browne and I surprised some natives
on the top of a sand hill, two of them saw us approaching and ran away,
the third could not make his escape before we were upon him, but he was
dreadfully alarmed. In order to allay his fears Mr. Browne dismounted and
walked up to him, whilst I kept back. On this the poor fellow began to
dance, and to call out most vehemently, but finding that all he could do
was to no purpose he sat down and began to cry. We managed however to
pacify him, so much that he mustered courage to follow us, with his two
companions, to our halting place. These wanderers of the desert had their
bags full of jerboas which they had captured on the hills. They could not
indeed have had less than from 150 to 200 of these beautiful little
animals, so numerous are they on the sand hills, but it would appear that
the natives can only go in pursuit of them after a fall of rain, such as
that we had experienced. There being then water, the country, at other
times impenetrable, is then temporarily thrown open to them, and they
traverse it in quest of the jerboa and other quadrupeds. Our friends
cooked all they had in hot sand, and devoured them entire, fur, skin,
entrails and all, only breaking away the under jaw and nipping off the
tail with their teeth.

They absolutely managed before sunset to finish their whole stock, and
then took their departure, having, I suppose, gratified both their
appetite and their curiosity. They were all three circumcised and spoke a
different language from that of the hill natives, and came, they told us,
from the west.

As we advanced the country became extremely barren, and surface water was
very scarce, and the open ground, entirely denuded of timber, wore the
most desolate appearance. If we had hitherto been in a region destitut