In the evening, as the setting sun crimsoned the warmly tinted rocks of the higher hills, whose base was already veiled in shade and blue haze, we halted, after twenty miles' weary march, at Sanna Spruits, in one large encampment, placing outlying picquets of Cavalry on the rising ground; the lances and pennons seen against the glowing sky gave the groups a most picturesque appearance. Two or three ostrich eggs were found in the sand, and brought into camp; they made excellent omelettes. Next day the face of the country slightly improved, the grass approached nearer to green, and a fine range of blue mountains was seen in the horizon, some like domes with pointed minarets, others sharp serrated peaks, and one or two resembling chimneys. The scanty vegetation of the plains was varied now and then by patches of orange, purple, and pink mesembryanthemum; the beautiful hæmanthus, and brilliant convolvulus; also by small yellow and scarlet poppies, with sharp prickly leaves like the thistle. We were greatly astonished at the frogs which haunted the dry sandy desert, far from any springs or water. They were enormous fellows, as big as a sheep's haggis, and of a bright green; when we stirred them up with a ramrod, they snapped at it like a dog, following it round and round, and showing fight in the fiercest manner. Chameleons were common, and some of the scenes among the men who stood amazed at their changes were very amusing. The variety and quantity of lizards was something incredible. Immense green grasshoppers kept rising from the ground on the line of march, fluttering before us with brilliant scarlet wings, and as in the colony, the lights in our tents at night constantly attracted the strange looking 'mantis religiosa' or praying insect. It is an old story that the Hottentots once worshipped them, and our men used occasionally to chaff them on the point, offering them specimens for the purpose, which invariably put the Totties into a furious rage. In peculiar states of the atmosphere, the mirage once or twice made our thirsty mouths water in the broiling afternoon, by its tantalizing illusion of large lakes looming in the distance. Late in the day two distant specks, like a couple of little boats out at sea, were observed approaching the column, and soon proved to be Tolcher, the missing officer, and a Boer, who had fallen in with him near Smithfield, the place we had left three days ago! One night he had passed on the open plain, and had been thirty hours without food or water when he fortunately met the Dutchman, who took him to his farm for the night, and brought him on after us the next day. As always happens in such cases, now that he was safe back, everybody who had before deeply deplored his fate, heartily abused him for his stupidity in losing himself.