However, our first few eager pannings were disappointing, for they showed no free gold; but we had neither tools nor time for a proper test, for our stores were exhausted, Ransson was still full of fever, and the fact that a leopard had taken old Ezaak’s dog, quite close to us, as we had lain sleeping the sleep of exhaustion by the pool, and without a fire, warned us that we should have dangerous neighbours if we stayed. Still, we should certainly return, so with the few samples we could carry at our saddle-bows we climbed by dangerous paths out of this strange abyss, passing over ridge after ridge of the same sort of rock, till late in the afternoon we could see, through a gap in the mountains westward, yet another range whose characteristic shape showed them to be granite, and beyond the spur of them a wide, dim expanse of plain. “Kuboos,” said Jacob, pointing to where mountain and plain met, and late that night we rode into a dry river-bed where, close to a beautiful trickle of actually clean water, our waggon was waiting. Kuboos is really the only “permanent” centre for the Richtersfeldt Hottentots, for here they have a tiny stone-built mission church, round which cluster a variable number of mat _pondhoeks_. Practically the whole of the population called on us the following morning, bringing goat’s milk in various weird receptacles, amongst them a number of women and girls of all sizes, all chattering and laughing gaily, in absolute contrast to the taciturnity of the men. Many of the younger women were quite good-looking, though their faces were mostly adorned with the hideous smears of soot and ochre with which they delight to paint themselves. Each woman carried at her waist a small tortoise-shell as a “beauty box,” in which was kept these “beautifiers,” together with a hare’s tail, some sweet-smelling buchu leaves, and other weird toilet essentials. Kuboos itself is absolutely without interest. The church, huts, etc., stand upon bare foothills of decomposed granite without a sign of vegetation, for the only “lands” the natives cultivate lie high up on the top of the magnificent granite range that towers above the settlement, the path to them being so steep that the corn is brought down in sleds. Prominent amongst the soaring peaks of this bold granite barrier is a striking castellated cluster known as “Kuboos Tower,” the pillars and buttresses of which might well have been piled aloft by some titanic builder.