We encamped on the feventeenth near the banks of the
Olifant’s river, where feveral hot fprings iffued out of a bog;
confifting of a browniih oxyd of iron, mixed with irregular
fhaped pieces of ponderous iron ftone, many of which feemed
once to have been in a ftate of fufion. The water was chalybeate,
as appeared from the great quantity o f orange colored
fediment depofited in the channels through which it ran, and
the fine fteel blue fkum with which the furfaces o f the wells
were covered. O f the four principal wells, all rifing out) of
the fame bog, thè temperatures were m ° , 109°, 1059, and
95° of Fahrenheit’s fcale. They are much frequented by thè
neighbouring peafantry, and held by them to be efficacious in
the cure of bruifès, fprains, and rheumatic complaints.
How friendly foever the water o f the wells might prove to
the human conftitution, it could not be more-fo than in'appearance
it was favorable to the growth o f plants. Along the fides
of the ftreamlets a zone-leafed-geranium was obferved climbing
to the height of fifteèn feet, and the whole fhrubbery that gtew
in the vicinity of the water was more than ufually luxuriant.
The long drought had completely deprived the Olifant’s river
o f its waters, and the facè of the country was nearly as barren
and parched as the Karroo on the oppofite fide of the Black
mountains, except indeed along each fide of the bed of the river,
where the mimofas, now full of golden bloffoms, ftill retained
their verdure, and where the Canna plant, or Salfola, was growing
to the height o f eight or ten feet. Should thefe two articles,
at any future period, be confidered as worthy attention in a
commercial
commercial point o f view, ; the divifion of Olifant’s river is the
moft favorable fituation for encouraging their culture, and for
procuring their produits in the moft confiderable quantities.
None of the larger kind of game, except the Koodoo, are now
to be,met with near Olifant s river, though the animal^ whofe
name it bears, in all probability, once abounded there. The
river otter is plentiful,, as are alfo two or three fpeciçs o f wildcat,
one of which appeared to be that defcribed under the name
of Caracal. The body was of a deep chefnut brown, and the
points of the ears tipped with bruihes o f long black hairs ; a
fécond fpeciès, or rather variety, was of a cinereous blue color ;
and a third, clouded black and white. Here alfo is abundance
of that fpecies of viverra called the Ratel. Its choice food is
honey, and nature has endowed it with a hide fo very thick,
that the fting o f a bee is .unable to penetrate through it. No
animal is perhaps more tenacious of life than the ratel. A dog
with great difficulty can worry it to death ; and it is a fpecies
of amufement for the farmers to run knives through different
.parts of the body, without being able, for a length of time, to
deprive it of exiftence.
Turning off to the fouthward from the OfifantV river and
palling round a high detached mountain called the Kamnaajieberg,
we croffed a range of hills, and defcended into Langé Kloof, or
the Long Pafs. This is a narrow valley, in few places exceeding
a mile in width, hemmed in between a high unbroken
chain of mountains on the fouth, and a parallel range o f green
hills on the north, ftretching nearly due eaft and weft, without
any