poultry in a farm-yard; and of korhaens, the otis afra of
Linnasus, and white-eared baftard of Latham, which, unlike
the partridge, not only fly to a diftanee at the approach of the
fportfman, but keep up, while on the wing, a violent fcream-
in&» as i f fo give notice to other birds of the impending
danger. There are alfo plenty of Cape fnipes, Scolopax Capen-
fts, and three fpecies of wild ducks, the anas Capends, or Cape
widgeon, the Dominican duck, and the common teal. Among
the quadrupeds that inhabit the valley are the duiker and the
grieibok, already defcribed ; and the mountains abound with a
curious fpecies of antelope, which, from its amazing agility, is
called the klip-fpringer, or rock-leaper. Its cloven hoofs are
each of them fubdivided into two fegments, and jagged at the
edges, which gives it the power o f adhering to the fteep Tides
o f the fmooth rock without danger of flipping. The color is
cinereous grey, and its black horns are ihort, ftreight, ere£t, and
annulated one third o f their length from the bafe. The hair is
very Angular, being fo brittle that it breaks inftead of bending;
adheres loofely to the ikin, and is fo very light that it is ufed as
the beft article that can be procured for fluffing faddles.
A few miles beyond the Paarl, the Berg or Mountain-river
croffes the road. It is here fo large and deep in the winter fea-
fon as to make a pont or floating bridge neceffary. A little
lower down, however, it is fometimes fordable ; and the pea-
fants, to avoid the toll at the ferry, frequently crofs it, though at
the hazard of their own lives and of their cattle. At this time
the river was pretty full; yet two farmers, rather than pay four
Shillings for the paffage at the ferry o f their two waggons,
ventured
ventured through at the ford, and pafled it with the lofs only
of two iheep that were worth at leaft four times the amount of
the toll. The road beyond the ferry is excellent, being a level
bed of hard clay ; but the country is very thinly inhabited. In
advancing to the northward the furface has fewer inequalities,
and becomes fandy. ■ Nothing, however, like drifts or beds of
fand, meets the eye j but, on the contrary, it wanders over an
uninterrupted foreft of verdure arifing from a variety of fruit-
efcent plants, among which the tribes of proteas, of heaths, and
two fpecies of feriphium, called here the rhinofceros-buffi, predominate.
In thofe places where the ground is leaft covered,
the hillocks thrown up by the termites moft abound. Here
alfo, towards the clofe of the day, a multitude of fmall land
tortoifes, the tejludo puftlla and the geometrica of Linnseus, were
crawling flowly off the road towards the buffies, having balked
themfelves in the open funfhine during the day. The howling
wolf and the yelping jackall began their hideous cries ihortly
after the fetting of the fun, and feemed to follow us in the
night, keeping at no great diftanee from the Waggons. It was
near the middle of the night before we arrived at a folitary
habitation, fituated in a wild, bleak, open country, and on the
borders of a lake called the Vogel Valley or the Bird Lake. The
word valley, in the colony, implies either a lake or a fwamp : at
this time the place in queftion was the latter; but it abounded
with ducks, geefe, and teal, and alfo with the great white pelican,
the onocratulus, and the rofe-colored flamingo. The wings
of the latter are converted into fans for flapping away the flies
that, in incredible multitudes, fwarm in the houfes of the pea-
fantry for want of a proper attention to cleanlinefs and the
pelican