In such a country, what accommodation could I expect, or what hopes could
I entertain for the future, when the very water shed from the clouds
would not be drinkable after remaining a few hours on the ground?
Whichever way I turned myself, to the West, to the East, or the North,
nothing but difficulties met my view.
In one direction was an impracticable lake, skirted by heavy and scrubby
sand ridges; in another, a desert of bare and barren plains; and in a
third, a range of inhospitable rocks. The very stones lying upon the
hills looked like the scorched and withered scoria of a volcanic region;
and even the natives, judging from the specimen I had seen to-day,
partook of the general misery and wretchedness of the place.
My heart sank within me when I reflected upon the gradual but too obvious
change that had taken place in the character of the country for the
worse, and when I considered that for some days past we had been entirely
dependent for our supply of water upon the little puddles that had been
left on the plains by the rain, and which two or three more days would
completely dry up.
