Considering the time that had elapsed since it was drawn, we had found it so far astonishingly accurate. It showed the old traveller’s road from Griquatown along the northern bank of the Orange to “Klaas Lucas Kraal,” a native stadt in those days, and now Upington; it gave the route northward to the Hygap (the Hottentot name for the Molopo) and Zwartmodder, and thence clearly to Hachschein Vley and the spot we hoped to find a fortune in. And the driver, after perusing it, told us that, whatever we might do when we arrived at the vley, we must follow the present road that far. For eastward stretched the unknown, waterless, and forbidden wastes of the Game Reserve, and westward, and nearer to us each day of our trek, was the frontier-line and German territory, to enter which and trek north would mean endless red tape and obstruction. So there was no help for it but to keep on as we were going, up the dry bed of the Molopo. The following day we struck an oasis in the shape of a clean, comfortable, and well-furnished dwelling, the farm “Bloemfontein,” whose then owners were an object-lesson to their benighted neighbours as to what comfort can be obtained by a little trouble and expense, even here on the fringe of the desert. Here I was shown some very fine-looking “yellow ground” from an adjoining farm near the German border which was being worked for diamonds. It looked extremely promising, and contained plenty of “carbon,” garnets, etc., but the other stones shown me in conjunction with it were zircons and not diamonds, as had been believed. This gentleman also told me of many strange “pans” in the real desert eastward, where diamonds were supposed to exist, but in which direction all prospecting and even trekking was now forbidden, and his experiences so interested me that I resolved sooner or later to explore those “pans” myself. At Witkop the following day I had further evidence shown me of the abundance of diamondiferous “indications” that are such a feature of Gordonia, for here “yellow ground,” with all its usual inclusions, was to be seen in close proximity to the road, and indeed there is proof everywhere in this locality that pipes, fissures, or other occurrences of Kimberlite exist, and need but a little systematic prospecting to locate. Whether they are diamondiferous can only be proved by working them, but the fact that at various times diamonds have been picked up here and there in the vicinity certainly makes such a supposition reasonable.