two feet deep, but although on either side the bed was full of great boulders of greenstone as large as one’s head, it was here smooth and sandy, so that we crossed with perfect ease, and made our halt near Klipdrift, on the other side.
While we were resting, Pit, our Griquaman, surprised me by bringing me a diamond weighing about a quarter of a carat. During the time the oxen were grazing he had been lying on the ground rummaging over some sand that had been left as sifted by the diggers, and his trouble had been rewarded by the discovery of the little stone, which I was very pleased to accept as an addition to my collection; but some time afterwards I was grieved to find that I had lost it, when or how I could never tell.
Starting again the same evening, we travelled on till it was quite late, leaving the Vaal, which took a bend to the south-south-east, on our right. The road lay over bushy heights, covered with rocks and crowned with alluvial flats often a mile in length, and separated by tracts of soil of the same character, sloping down towards the river.
About four o’clock on the afternoon of the 7th we arrived at Hebron, but passed on without stopping, as I wanted, while it was still daylight, to reach the spot where we should have to leave the Hebron and Christiana road, and turn off towards Gassibone. Even in the few months since we were here the town had manifestly gone still further to decay. The bad state of the roads compelled us to
