the mind ; and various objects easily escape notice, in this dubious
light. We halted at an outspan-place, in the midst of Rhinoceros-
bushes. A pack of jackals * continued howling and barking near us,
for some time; in the hope of picking up a stray sheep.
Our people now seemed all in the height of good humour ; and,
cheered with the blaze of four different fires, they sat up till midnight,
talking and smoking, while the sound of my flute at intervals,
seemed to increase their satisfaction, and gain all their attention.
25th. I walked to the house of Piet Van der Merwe, a neighbouring
farmer f , to enquire for a new pole for the waggon, and fortunately
obtained one. He told my fellow-traveller, that he had heard
there was an Englishman on the road, who had general orders from
government, authorizing him to demand such assistance as he might
stand in need of, but he candidly confessed that had I made use of it
on this occasion, I should not have been able to persuade him to do
anything, as he would in that case have pleaded a hurt in his hand, as
an excuse for not lending us any help at the forge; but that, as I
had asked it as a favor, he willingly sold me the pole; and would
freely give his assistance.
After considerable delay, and some trouble, a new pole was at
length fixed in. The old one, from its peculiar fracture, excited my
attention: it was made of the wood called Hassagay-hout ;£, which
possesses the valuable property of extreme toughness, as this accident
clearly evinced. Although bent to an angle of about 150 degrees, it
exhibited scarcely any transverse fracture, but appeared split into a
great number of longitudinal splinters, which still held the two parts
strongly together. The pole we had now put in, being of Yzer-hout §
* Cants mesomelas, Linn.
f By the side of a rivulet here, grows Capraria lanceolata, Linn, a very neat willowleaved
shrub, decorated with long yellowish flowers: I t is peculiar to such situations.
J So named by the colonists, on account of its being the wood of which the KaiFers
most commonly make the shafts of their hassagays or javelins. I t is the Curtisiafaginea.
§ Olea undulata.
(or Iron-wood), was not so tough as the other; but many degrees
harder and heavier. The boors esteem the iron-wood to be, for this
purpose, but little inferior to the hassagay-wood.
This business detained us at Van der Merwe’s till within an hour
of sunset. Here we took our last view of Table Mountain, which
appeared distinct and full in sight, although, in a direct line, its
distance was not much less than forty-eight miles.
In a little more than seven hours, we reached the western
entrance of Roodezand's Kloof (Red-sand Pass) where we took up
our station for the night. At this place, a furious stream of wind
continued pouring, as it were, through this opening in the mountains,
during the whole time of our stay; and it has been remarked by the
boors, that this spot is always subject to strong winds. The difficulty
of keeping a fire burning, -or a candle alight in the waggons, obliged
us to remain in darkness till morning.
2Qth. We entered the mountains at an early hour in the morning.
This Kloof appeared much more terrific while travelling through it in
a waggon, than it did when on horseback. * About the middle of it
we met another waggon; and I could not, without considerable
uneasiness, see how very near to the edge of the precipice the wheels
of mine were obliged to go, while making room for it to pass.
Following on foot, I was enabled to collect a variety of plants
not hitherto met with. These added thirty-six numbers to my
catalogue. *f* Among them was a shrub more particularly interesting,
* The Engraving at the end of the chapter is a view of the Kloof, taken when the
waggons were about half-way through it. A description of this scene has already been
given on the 19th of April, at page 137.
f They were,
Othonna amplexicaulis
• denticolata
—— — abrotanifolia
-— ■ capillaris
-— ------Jrutescens
Aizoon lanceolatum
Berckheya setosa
Leucodendrum plumosum
Viscum rotundifolium
Cluytia Alaterno'ides
Metrosideros angustifolia
Aster angustifolius
Diosma pedinata
Eriocephalus racemosus
Rhus incisum,
With