the Keiikamma, whilft we turned off to the fouthward towards
the fea-coaft. In the duik o f the evening we came to a fmall
clear ftream, upon the bank of which we pitched our tent. It
interfered one o f the moft beautiful parts o f Africa that had
yet fallen under our obfervation. The bold eaftern bank
clothed with hanging-wood, and the extenfive meadows riling
gradually on the oppofite fide into fine fwells covered with
grafs, and interrupted here and there by clumps of tall
Ihrubbery and ftraggling trees, gave to the country the appearance
of a fuite of Englilh parks or pleafure grounds. Along
the river flood a number of fmall villages and detached huts ;
but they were entirely deferted. The land had evidently been
under cultivation no long time pad. Fields of millet that had
been confirmed by the birds were ftill Handing in regular rows.
It appeared to be the bolcus forghum o f Linnaeus. Several
large-water melons, o f an infipid tafte, had planted themfelves
from the feed o f the old ones that had decayed on the ground.
Several implements of huibandry, keeries, and fmall wooden
fpades, were lying in the gardens; and it appeared as i f the
inhabitants had been driven away in a hafty manner.
Some fires being feen at no great diftance from the place o f
our encampment, and the dogs keeping a perpetual barking
after it grew dark, we began to fufpect that our motions were
watched by one of the parties, the Kaffer king, or the emigrant
chiefs. In the courfe o f the night, however, the difturbance.
made by the dogs was explained, from an immenfe troop o f
wolves attratted by the fmell of an ox that had'been killed the
preceding
preceding evening. Thefe creatures camé in fuch a body as
completely to chace away the dogs, and to frighten all our
people though armed with mufquets.
Befides the common wolf and the domeftic dog, there are no
fewer than five diftinét fpecies of the canine tribe in Southern
Africa that have palled through my hands : three of thefe are
called in the colony by the general name of jackal ; one the
mefomclas, an animal well known and very common in every
part of the Cape ; another, the aureus, which is fmaller than
the firft, goes generally in troops, and is commonly met with
in the Sneuwberg : the third is a fpecies of fox, as yet, I believe,
not defcribed ; the color is grizzled, the ground cinerous
blue mixed with filvery hairs ; face, legs, and belly light-
brown ; tail ftraight, grizzled, and buihy ; ears long, pointed,
eretft; face remarkably pointed ; the hairToft, and refembling
fur ; in ftature it is confiderably lefs than the common fox:.
The other two go under the ftame o f wolves ; one is the cro-
cuta, called the fpotted wolf ; the other is an enormous beaft,
and feldora met with except in the remote parts of the colony :
its fize is that of the largeft Newfoundland dog ; the color a
pale fallow ; the hair of the neck and back long, thick, and
clotted ; tail ihort and ftraight ; ihoulders, thighs, and legs
marked with large irregular black blotches : from its having
only four toes on the fore-feet, it may probably be a variety o f
the common hyæna.
The fmell of the carcafe prefently attracted a prodigious
number of birds of prey, one of which, a fmall kite, entirely
brown,