1776. January. \SVSJ here Was fine and mellow, and appeared, without having undergone any purification whatever, to be tolerably free from wax.— I neither faw nor heard of any one in all Africa that kept tame bees, excepting in the country about Con- ftantia, where a young lad, the fon of a colonift, ufed fometimes to fet out empty cheits and boxes, into which a wild fwarm would enter without fail in the fpace of a few days and fettle; but the hive was generally taken al- moft immediately by this greedy amateur, and was like- wife partly ftolen by liquoriih ilaves, .among whom thofe who were natives of Madagafcar had a particular knack at finding wild bees and honey, As in the tracks of country laft-mentioned, befides other flowers, there grow in particular many different forts of heaths, the culture of bees might in thefe places be carried to a very great height. Near the Cape I found the wild honey of an inferior quality. Whether this proceeded from the great abundance of heath in the above-mentioned diftri<ks, or from my being more faftidious and nice when I was at the latter place; I am not able to determine. The jerbua Capenjis, which I enumerated a little above at page 180 among the animals in the ruins of whofe fubterra- neous dwellings the bees, in default of trees fit for their pUr- pofe, build their nefts, is defcribed by Dr. J. R. F o r s t e r in the Swedifh Tranfackions for 177 8, page 108, with fome remarks'of mine annexed, 1. c. page 1 19 . On this, head likewife, the reader may confult the compilation referred to above, called Nouv< Defcript. & c . together with M. P a l l a s ’s de Murium Genere, page 87, in which book it was. afterwards referred to under the denomination of the mux Coffer. Caffer. By the colonifts it is called berg-haas, or fprtng- baas, (the mountain or bounding hare) and lives upon roots and other vegetables, his principal haunts being in the vicinity of Stellen-bofcb and Camdebo. It is nearly of the fize and colour of a common hare, but its hind legs, by means of which it is faid to be able to take a leap twenty feet in length, are much longer and flenderer p its fore legs, on the other hand, are extremely fhort, the animal feldom fupporting itfelf upon them, being generally in a fitting pofture, and ufing them as hands- to convey the food to its mouth. It is likewife able, with great expedition, by means of its fore paws, and with the affiftance of its long pro- jecking teeth, , to dig holes for itfelf and paffages under ground; though it does not by any means experience the greateft degree o f fecurity in this' afylum, on account of the dykes and cuts made by the colonifts to their cornfields and plantations, which likewife find their way into thefe fubterraneous paffages ; fo that the jerbuas, which are thus in danger o f being drowned in their own habitations, are obliged to evacuate them with the greateft precipitation, in confequence of which they are frequently purfued and taken. Where the inhabitants of this country have an opportunity (that of a neighbouring mountain, for inftance) of making the dykes and fluices here alluded to, they do not omit by means o f them to drown the moles likewife, as they are called, which infeft this colony, and which are, in fack, a kind of rat with fhort tails. The one fort is lefs than the other, but is moft common round about the Cape; and from the white fpots on its head is called bleefmol, and C c 2 is w o
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