1775. driving in Africa, is as difficult and tirefome an occupation, as this mode o f travelling is noify, inconvenient, and danger ous. , Very late in the evening we arrived at our drivers farm, w h i c h w a s very, pleafantly fituated on the other fide of Bott Rivier. This, river was,, befet at fmall intervals with pretty high mountains, the peaks and ridges of which. delightfully varied the fctene. In the declivities of fome of them caverns and grottos were feen, which certainly did not exift from the beginning, but were produced y the viciffitudes and changes to which all natural objedts are fubjedt. Even the hard and fteep rocky precipices, which one would imagine to be doomed to everlafting nakednefs, were, o n t h e i r black walls, teeming with iron- ore, adorned with f e v e r a l climbing-plants, the branches and tendrils of which they gratefully in return with then iharply-projedting angles, ftretched out and fupported. In the clefts of thefe declivities I obferved the plants, which nature had produce^ on. thefe elevated hot-beds, already in bloom, and which, in their pride, might bid defiance to all human approach. A few ftones throw from this farm there was a mineral water of confiderable firength, which nobody in this quarter had had the fenfe to make ufe of. The ftones and rocks in feveral fpots hereabouts contained a great deal of iron. ^ Along this river lay many peafants houfes and farms, the produce of which confifted chiefly of ffieep and com. The wine that was made here was a four waih, which would not fell in the town without being firft converted into vinegar and brandy. The peafants themfelves, how- ever, ever, drank it greedily juft as it was. The caufe of the inferior quality o f this wine, as well as o f moft o f that made w rO at Agter de Berg, proceeds from the greater coldnefs o f the foil; which again depends on the diftance of this country from the fea, and confequently from the fertilizing vapours of that element; but chiefly upon the elevation of this dif- tridt above the fea’s furface. After flaying a day at this place, we made a trip to the warm baths, I left my waggon here till I ihould have occaiion for it, and went on horfeback, in company with another waggon that was going to the fame place. In order to go by a nearer way, we did not take any beaten road, but made the beft o f our way forward over plains, hills, and dales. The whole of this extenfive tradt was, by reafon o f the defedt o f water, left uncultivated and uninhabited. A great number of deer and other game had taken refuge here. I now, for the firft time, had the pleafure o f feeing herds, confifting o f the two largeft forts of antihpes or gazells, which are called by the Dutch hartbeejls and bunteboks; the former name, which fignifies bart-beajl, was probably given to the former of thefe creatures on account o f fome refemblance they ffiewed in colour to the European harts; and the latter, which fignifies painted, or rather pied goats, fuits better with thefe latter animals, their orange-yellow or pale-brown pofteriors being marked with a number o f white ipots and ftreaks. The bartbeeji I have defcribed in the Memoirs o f the Swediffi Academy of Sciences for 1779, page 1 5 1 , by the name of antilope ' dorcas: it is likewife given here in Vol. II. plate I. fig. 1. being frequently mentioned in the courfe of the following pages. The buntebock, fomething lefs, but more corpulent in pro-* V o x . I. S portion
27f 72-1
To see the actual publication please follow the link above