December MAN t0 ®S^t; as likewife, that this latter did not purfue us, by reafon that, in confequence o f our having rode up to it full in the face of the wind, it could not get fcent of us; befides, this animal did not hear our talking nor the crackling of the branches, with a fufficient degree of certainty to engage it to make an attack upon u s : and in fine, it appears, that it had with great forecaft chofen a thick and high bulh, by way of entrenchment, on that fide o f the buih, from whence the wind prevented it from getting fcent of any thing. I f I may form any coriclufion from my horfe’s flopping, it would feem, that he had got fcent of this beaft as far off as the diftance of forty or fifty paces, though the wind was very moderate from that quarter. On our way homewards (for fo we always called our waggon, or encampment in the defert) we came within piftol-ihot of a herd of elk-antilopes, probably the fame with thofe we had given chafe to in the morning without fuccefs; but what was very Angular, they at this time hardly fhewed the leaft fear. The males, which were o f the fize o f an ordinary galloway, appeared much more bulky and corpulent than their females, and ieemed to run rather heavily. In the evening we received an unexpe£ted vilit. This was from eight colonifts, who were come hither from Cam- debo with four waggons, and had brought with them two o f their wives, and a couple of children. They were going to the falt-pit before-mentioned near Zwartkops- river, in order to fetch fait from thence; but having been told by us of the violent drought they would meet with in their way thither, part of them only went with two waggons, that being fewer o f them, they might be lefs liable to fuf- 7 fer fer for want o f water. Thefe people informed us, that „ '775- . - , i i t December. that Very day they had chanced to awake a rhinoceros juft by the road fide; but that the beaft, probably feared by the noife and buftle it heard from different quarters at once, ran by them without doing them any hurt. They related to me, however, an inftance, in which a rhinoceros had run up to a waggon, and carried it a good way along with him 011 his ihout and horns. They likewife informed us, that the diftemper among the horfes had already begun to commit ravages in the diftriift of Camdebo, where, however, it otherwife feldom uied to make its appearance till the month of April. The reafon o f this, probably* was the univerial drought that prevailed this year- Q H A P.
27f 72-2
To see the actual publication please follow the link above