The weather had been exceflively fultry for many day«;
and towards the fetting of the fun on this day, as we were de-
fcending the mountain* the heavens became fuddenly over-
fpread with heavy black Clouds that momentarily threatened to
burft. The waggons juft reached in time a fpot ih the Valley,
in fome meafure iheltered from the wind, when the ftorm
opened with incredible fury. The violence of the wind was ft
great, that it fwept away every thing before i t ; and it was followed
by a burft of thunder that feemed to “ ihake the foun-
“ dations o f old earth.” Peal after peal ineefiantiy rulhed on
each other* and roared in the mountains as if tearing and riving
in pieces their mafies of rock; and ftreams o f livid fire flew
with terrible fwiftnefs to every part of the horizon. Heavy
ram, mingled with hailftones o f unufual bignefs, and violent
fqualls of wind feemed to be contending for the maftery with
the thunder and the fire.
“ Since I was man
« Such theets o f 6re, fuch burfts o f horrid thunder,
« Such groans o f roaring wind, and rain, I never
“ Remember to have heard.”
The ftorm continued a great part o f the night; and on the
following morning fome of its effefts were fieen in the wreck
o f a grove of tall mirnofas, the greateft part of which was torn
up by the roots. Such like ftorms are faid to be very frequent
in thefe great chains of mountains during the fumrner months •
but the fouth-eaft winds, whicb blow with fuch ftrengtli at the'
Cape, are not felt in the interior parts of the country. At the
Cape
Cape there happens lefs thunder and lightning than perhaps in
any other part o f the world, the ifland of St. Helena excepted,
where they are fcarcely known to the inhabitants.
Palling over a rough mountainous country, we halted on the
thirtieth near the fource of the Bavian’s, or Baboon’s river. It
rifes out of a chain of mountains in the Kaffer country, and
joins the Great Tulh river. Tall fpreading mimofas were here
fcattered over the face o f the country, and, with their new
foliagè of lively green, difplayed a Very beautiful appearance ;
they were alfo ftudded with clufters of golden flowers, not more
pleafing to the eye than agreeable to the fmell. Thoufands of
bees' were bufily employed in colleding from thefe flowers their
winter’s flore. This part of the country feemed to abound in
honey ; it was hanging in large clufters from almoft every rock,
and this was the feafon o f its greateft plenty and perfedion.
The Hottentots have a common obfervation among them, that
when the Doom boom blofloms the honey is fat.
Quick as the Hottentots are in obferving the bees, as they fly
to their nefts, they have ftill a much better guide on which they
invariably rely. This is a fmall brownilh bird, nothing remarkable
in its appearance, of the cuckoo genus, to which naturalifts
have given the fpecific name of Indicator, from the circumftance
of its pointing out and difcorering, by a chirping and whiftling
noife, the nefts o f bees ; it is called by the farmers the honey
bird. 1