weather indicated a fevere froft every night at the diitance
o f a very few miles on the defert.
The miftrefs o f the manfion, at the age o f fixty, and the
mother o f fixteen children, was a tall, ftraight, well-looking,
and a£tive woman ; and all the people, who made their appearance
from the Black Mountains, were of a ftature much exceed-
ing the common fize of man. The peafantry o f the colony
have always been reprefented as a gigantic race o f men. Living
nearly in a ftate o f nature, with the advantage of having
at all times within their reach a fupply of food, procured without
bodily exertion or the fatigue of labor, they fometimes
attain the greateft poifible fize to which the fpecies feems
capable o f arriving.
From this place may be feen to the northward, acrofs the
Karroo plains, the chain o f mountains which forms the high-
eft ftep or terrace that has yet been afeended by European
travellers. The defert rifes towards them in a fine fwell that
is clearly perceptible to the eye. An attempt to eftimate the
height of the Nieutoveld Mountains, by having merely palled
over the country, can be confidered as little better than a guefs.
I ihould fuppofe, however, from attending to the general Hope
o f the country to the northward, as well as the fudden elevations
from one terrace to another, that the fummit of this fcreen
of mountains cannot be lefs than ten thoufand feet above the
level of the fea. Snow falls upon them to the depth of five or
fix feet, and continues to bury them for as many months.
The inferior range of Zwarteberg was at this time, for a confiderable
fiderable diftance from the fummit, covered with fnow. Thefe
mountains were apparently compofed of the fame materials as
thofe already paffed; but the detached hills, near their bafe,
confifted entirely o f that fpecies o f rock called by Mr. Kirwan
the amygdaloid, which is nearly allied to the ftone that the
miners of Derbylhire have diftinguifhed by the name o f toad-
Jlone. The rounded pebbles, embedded in this argillaceous
matrix, were almoft invariably tinged with a bright grafs-green
color. The fubftratum of the mountains ftill continued to be
a blue and purple-colored fchiftus.
Having completed our ftock o f provifions, and procured
from the inhabitants of Zwarteberg the loan o f fixty ftout bullocks,
we once more launched upon the wide defert, and proceeded,
on the twenty-third, near thirty miles to a fpring o f
water called the Sleutel fonteyn, and the following day encamped
on the banks of the ‘Traka or Maiden river. The little water
it contained was both muddy and fait, and the land on its banks
was covered with a thin pellicle of nitre out o f which was
growing abundance of the falfola before mentioned.
At fun-rife this morning the thermometer was down to five
degrees below the freezing point. This great diminution of
temperature appeared the more extraordinary, as no change,
either in the direction or the ftrength of the wind, had taken
place. The air was clear and ferene, without a cloud in the
iky, and the weather apparently the fame it had been for feve-
ral days in every refpedt, except in the degree o f temperature.
The fnow on the mountains could have had little influence.
The