For here, as I have already mentioned, Stuurmann, whom we had met at Luderitzbucht, had seen such wonderful gravels, full of “crystals” that might well have been diamonds. Apart from its diamondiferous possibilities, the northern position of Klein Namaqualand immediately adjoining the Orange River has long enjoyed the reputation of being very highly mineralised; but owing to difficulty of transport and various other reasons, its mineral wealth has remained practically unexploited, and the region only known to the very few. As far back as 1838 Sir James Edward Alexander, F.R.G.S., published an account of an _Expedition of Discovery into the Interior of Africa_, which he had carried out under the auspices of the British Government and the Royal Geographical Society during the previous year, and during which he had explored the lands adjoining the southern bank of the Orange River for some 200 miles from the mouth. He was shown many rich deposits of copper by the natives, and so struck was he by what he saw that a year or two later, in London, he formed a company having for its object the exploitation of this new source of mineral wealth. Sir James’s scheme included the utilisation of the Orange River during the flood season for the floating down of ore, in flat-bottomed barges, to a wharf near the mouth of the river, and thence by waggon transport to one of the small bays near for shipment oversea; or the alternative of smelting furnaces near the river, fuel being obtainable from the thick, luxuriant belt of timber on either bank. Definite information as to operations carried out some seventy-odd years ago are hard to obtain, but some attempt was certainly made to carry out this scheme, ore being actually floated down the river and shipped from Alexander Bay, Peacock Bay, and Homewood Harbour; all within a few miles of the Orange River mouth, and at all of which the ruins of substantial buildings, boatslips, etc., standing deserted to-day on the lonely shores, bear eloquent testimony of this period of activity of a bygone day. But the venture was premature. It was before the days of steam; the ore had to be towed out by ship’s boats; the prevailing wind, which blows with extraordinary force all along this coast, must have been a great obstacle to the rapid handling of ore, and the consequent delay was probably one of the principal reasons for the abandonment of the scheme.