«•rev rock, formed an appropriate basement to such a superstructure.
Close at the foot of this, the river silently crept along, forcing its
way between the rushes, which seemed as if endeavouring to smother
its stream, or compel it to seek another course. The opposite side
of the defile, warmed by a glowing sunshine, and winding round out
of sight, gradually receded in aerial perspective. The deserted
silence of the spot, was broken only by the noise of wild geese,!or
the echo of my gun. I climbed the rocks, but*'found every thing
withered or quite parched up, and was able to collect nothing as a
memorial of the Reed-river Pass, excepting a little plant of Her-
inannia, which appeared quite new and curious.
Having before stated that the Reed river consisted at this season
of merely an unconnected line of ponds, it may have appeared contradictory
to describe it as running through the pass; and I was
myself surprised at the fact On attentively examining the dry
parts of the bed, it was found in most places, sufficiently loose and
gravelly to admit of a passage for the water underground. Without
this being the case, it would be difficult to account for the limpid
clearness and purity of the water of these pools.
Varying my route, in returning homewards, I came to a part of
the river, where the wild beauty and harmonious 'tints of the landscape
detained me till I had taken a sketch. It was nearly sunset j
the water was smooth and transparent; the distant hills glowed with
a mild warm hue ; and there was a certain beautiful appearance in the
rushes which grew in the water along the bank, that no painting
could express. Their principal color was a fine dark sober green,
enlivened by the sun. Towards the bottom, where they were con-'
, stantly wetted by the gentle rippling of the stream, a dark line,
nearly black, marked the division between the real and the reflected
stalks, so resembling each other as almost to deceive the eye, and
lead the spectator to believe that he saw rushes of a double length.
Their tops being dead or half withered, were of every shade between
white, Naples-yellow, and light-ochre, but'more generally partaking
of the white or the ochre. They spread in large extended patches,
like a cornfield, often to a great distance from the water side,
exhibiting an inimitable delicacy and gradation of keeping. The
hills in the back-ground, of a reddish barren hue mellowed by the
rich light of the setting.sun, contrasted, and rendered more beautiful,
the singular pale line formed by the tops of the rushes; whose tall,
slender, straight, form served to exemplify the assertion that, in a
landscape, no shape or uniformity is unpleasing when shadowed and
tinted by Nature. The observant artist may discover that the
beauty of his picture, depends far less on the choice of subject than
on the mode of managing it. If those painters who, having
neither taste nor genius, would spend a part of their time in the
observation, and confine themselves to the plain copying, of what is
before them, their works would possess a certain share of merit;
while on the contrary, by attempting to soar above the imitatipn of.
Nature, their pictures are entitled only to that of being the production
of their own imagination.
Vith. At this place my Hottentots went out every day hunting,
but without success: their object was that beautiful animal the
Mountain-horse or Dauw. * Here I procured, for the first time, the
Das or Dasje. j ' This is of a brown color, and has much the appearance
of a Rabbit: it is found in rocky places, where it takes shelter
in the crevices. Its flesh is eatable; but the animal is exceedingly
wary and difficult to get. The Wilde-gam (Wild-goose) % shot here, is
a large well-tasted bird, and was always found in pairs, although very
shy, and flying exceedingly well for so heavy a b ird : it may often
be discovered by its short quacking noise. At this place we met
with, for the first time, the Namaqua Partridge, a very small species
of Grous. §
* Equvs montanus: the description of which has been given at page 138 of this
volume.
f Hyrax Capensis: the early colonists frequently gave the names of European animals
to those of the Cape, without much discrimination, and on no better grounds than a very
vague resemblance. Thus it is, that the present bears the name of Das or Badger.
$ Anas cana. Sys. Nat. ed. Gmel.
§ Tetrao Namaquana. Sys. Nat. ed. Gmel. — Pterocles. Temminck, Manuel d’Omi-
thologie, 2nde ed.
M M