As usual, the endurance of the animals gave way before that of the men.

We had not completed more than a mile of our route (although it was far more if the ascents and descents were taken into account) when Ranger, a very fine young dog, dropped behind some rocks, and although we turned back to look for him directly he was missed he could not be found.
The next to give way was Ringhalz, a fine Cape buck-hound; he fell amongst the rocks, and died almost instantly.

The only dog now left was a greyhound, who manifested his extreme distress by constantly lying down.
For some time we dragged him along, but he was at last from necessity abandoned.

The cry of water was at length raised by one of the party, and immediately afterwards we found ourselves on the edge of a deep ravine, the precipitous sides of which were composed of nearly horizontal layers of red sandstone.

Down these some of us contrived to scramble, although not without difficulty; but on reaching the bottom we had the mortification to find the water salt; and as it would have been very laborious to follow its course along the bottom of the ravine over the mud, mangroves, and rocks which filled it, we had the pleasure of scrambling up again as we best could.
For some short time we remained seated on the edge of the cliffs above the ravine; but as there was no shelter here from the sun's rays, and the pangs of thirst were pressing, I roused the men at last, and moved on again, following the course of the ravine upwards.