Water may generally be obtained even in the dry season by digging beneath the alluvium of a river bed, especially where a ledge of rocks crosses the watercourse. In some places, notably on the borders of the Namib and in the eastern areas, the water found by boring is brackish, and often unfit for human consumption. After the rainstorms water often lies for long periods in the natural depressions or _vleís_; these afford a good supply for cattle and game. In some of these depressions, when the water around the edges has dried up, an incrustation of salt is left, which, as Dr. Moffat found in Namaqualand nearly a hundred years ago, “crackles under the feet like hoar-frost.” SCENERY The lover of natural scenery will find little to attract him in such parts of the country as the Namib, Great Namaqualand, or the eastern steppes, for over large areas the aspects of nature are so consistently uniform as to become painfully monotonous, and this uniformity, combined with the absence of foliage and verdure and lakes and running streams, is very depressing to the traveller. But the country is not the wilderness many have been led to believe. When once the desert belt is crossed and the mountain plateaux are reached, some bold and striking mountain scenery meets the eye. Stupendous masses of naked rock, on which the light strikes bright and hard, rise into the sky, while other frowning heights tower aloft, menacing and fearful. In the Waterberg the numerous rocky summits, with their clear-cut edges and rifted walls, resemble in places the famous Giant’s Causeway, and in their boldness and variety of outline they present a scene of extraordinary rugged grandeur. Here are Cleopatra’s Needles, embattled castles, lofty pinnacles, and sculptured turrets, all standing out bold and clear in the amazingly thin, translucent air, and visible from immense distances. Between Omaruru and Okahandja, where hilly country is found alternating with level plains, some fine landscape views may be obtained. The falls on some of the rivers after the rains make picnic spots and pleasure resorts of rare delight. The voice of running waters, a sound but rarely heard in South Africa, can then be enjoyed in some of the deep gorges. In certain portions of Ovamboland there are woodlands, glades, and clearings that present the aspect of a boundless park. Windhoek, set in a circle of giant mountains on the slope of a hill, has quite a picturesque situation. South-West Africa, too, has all the charm of colour for which southern Africa is famous the world over. On the uplands the morning and the evening are times when the eye is filled and completely delighted with the warmth and richness of tone about the landscape.