evening with several pack-oxen loaded with the meat of five Quakkas.
Immediately there commenced a general broiling and feasting, in
which not only their fellow-travellers, but also their friends from
Klaarwater, lent their most hearty assistance.
By the altitude of the sun when on the meridian, I calculated
the latitude of Partridge Fountain to be 31° 23' 23* S. *
6th. Our course lay over a hard, even, bare, and open country,
the surface of which was here and there relieved from its monotony,
by a broad, and far-extended undulation. The train of waggons,
steadily following each other at equal distances, drew a lengthened
perspective line over the wide landscape, that presented the only
object on which the eye could fix. While the. van was advancing
over the highest swell, the rear was still far out of sight in the
hollow. Waggon behind waggon, slowly rose to view; and oft at
intervals, the loud clapping of the whip, or the jolting of the wheel,
disturbed the silence of the atmosphere, rolling its sound in a half
echo along the surface of the sun-baked earth. Not a green herb
enticed the eye; not a bird winged through the a ir: the creation
here, was nought but earth and sky; the azure vault of heaven,
expanded into the boundless aerial space, seemed lifted further from
the globe.
There is always a pleasure in novelty; and even the desert may
be found at some times, to afford the traveller both the one and the
other. The painter who viewed these scenes, might, if he knew it
not before, feel a conviction that the truest definition of Taste,
Beauty, the Picturesque, may be found in that of the word Nature.
In one part of this day’s journey, the low uniformity of the
horizon, was broken by a distant flat mountain, which, by some of
our party, was called the Spionberg (Spy-mountain.) Of this, and
of the train of waggons, I made two sketches, f
* 6th Sept. At Patrys Fontein^ the observed mer. alt. of the sun’s upper limb, was
52° 9''2 7".
f As we travelled on, I picked up —
Aristida? piligenu, B. C a t Geog. 1521. pilis verticillatis. Panicula simplex..
Folia subulata rigida brevia. Cul- Arista intermedia plumosa.
mus spithameus uninodis; geniculo,
. At Brakke rimer (Brackish river) in latitude 31° 16' 14"*, we
passed the night.
*Jth. In the bed of this rivulet we found plenty of water, of
good taste, but muddy, and of a yellow colour. The country, here,
still continued open, haying low flat hills in the distance. The
hunters shot a quakka, and wounded a lion. The preceding day, a
lioness, with her two cubs, was fallen in with ; aiid, it seems that we
had now entered the territory of this “ king of the b e a s t s a king,
however, who preys upon his own subjects. Nor is the title of
“ king of the forest” very applicable to an animal which, by myself
at least, was never met with but on the plains ; and, certainly, never
in any of the forests where I have been.
A day’s journey of twenty-two miles over a surface, for the
first part level, but for the last more hilly and uneven, brought us
as far as Leeuwe Fontein. (Lions’ Fountain.) j* To me, the fresh
relays were only a source of distress, as their speed of four miles in
the hour, ill suited the lean and exhausted state of my own oxen ;
yet, so anxious were the Hottentots to get to their homes, that even
those who, like myself, had but single teams, pressed them on to
the utmost of their strength.
The method by which, during my travels, I ascertained, to a
certain degree of correctness, the measure of each day’s journey,
was extremely simple; and is, I think, the only practicable one that
can be adapted to the circumstances of this mode of travelling. By
repeated trials, I obtained the exact length of ground over which
Aristida, praecedenti congener. Erinus.
Hebenstreitia, sp. odore Reseda? Zygophyllum. Frutex tripedalis
o d o r a t a ' ' ramosus.
Arctotis, “ Goudsbloem” dicta.
* 7th September. At the Brakke river, observed mer. alt. of the sun’s upper limb,
52° 38f 57".
. f "At Lion fountain, I met with a handsome species o f—
Dais P Cat. Geog. 1522. which was Pteronia ?
found afterwards in great abun- Aptosimtum.
dance; even so far as beyond the Senecio.
Kamhdnni Mountains.