On the 27th ofJanuary, 1854, two men lay stretched at the foot ofan immense weepingwillow, chatting, and at the same time watching most attentively the waters ofthe OrangeRiver. This river, the Groote of the Dutch, and the Gariep of the Hottentots, may well vie with the other three great arteries ofAfrica—the Nile, the Niger, and the Zambesi. Like those, it has its periodical risings, its rapids and cataracts. Travellers whose names are known over part of its course, Thompson, Alexander, and Burchell, have each in their turn praised the clearness of its waters, and the beauty of its shores.