€ H A P. XIV. Refidence at Agter Bruntjes-Hoogte. . I>1775ber rT " ' HE firft place where we took up our lodging was at U y v ; A art old elephant hunters, of the name o f P r i n t s u o , who was the firft that had migrated here, and at the bottom a high mountain had pitched upon the fineft fituation for a farm in the whole diftriit, and, I had alm'oft faid, in all Africa. The thermometer in the morning as »well as in the evening was about 60 degrees. •On the 30th the thermometer within doors was at 60 degrees at feven in the morning, and in the evening’ at 67. The 31ft, which was New Year’s Eve, and fell upon a Sunday, was celebrated with a pfalm or two, and after that with a game at cards. They aflured me, that the winter-months o f July and Auguft were colder at that place than at the Cape; fo that the fnow lay on the ground for a couple of days together, about two inches deep ; but that their fheep and cattle, then as well as at other times, were 'kept out of doors in the open air, and in the day-time were driven abroad to go in queft of their own food. January, January, 17 76. Agter Bruntjes-hoogte, where we were now arrived, is rather a flat tra£t of country, which takes in the upper part of Kleine Vifch-rivier, and is feparated from Camdebo by Bruntjes-boogtens, or the Bruntjes-hills, and with refpedt to the latter place (Camdebo) are fituated agter, or behind them. The Sneeuwbergen, which lie to the north of Camdebo, are fo called from the fnow with which in the winter-time the higheft of them are faid to be covered, and even to remain fo during part of the fum- mer; fo that they are, probably, o f the fame nature as the Rogge-veld and Bokke-veld mountains, and perhaps com- pofe a part of the chain formed by them. The lower Sneeuwbergen, or Snow-mountains, are inhabited the year throughout; but on the higher range of hills the winters are fevere enough: this circumftance, is faid to make the colonifts removeinto the plains below in Camdebo. The inhabitants, indeed, of the more diftant d'vmOT-mountains are fometimes obliged, according to report, entirely to relinquifh their dwellings and habitations, on account of the favage plundering race of Boihies-men,of which I have made fome mention above, in Vol. I..page 198; who from their hiding-places, fhooting forth their poifoned arrows at the fhepherd, kill him, and afterwards drive away the whole of his flock, which perhaps confifts of feveral hundred iheep, and forms the chief, if not the whole, of the farmer’s property. What they cannot drive away with them they kill and wound, as much as the time will allow them, while they are making their retreat. It is in vain to purfue them, they being very fwift of foot, and taking' refuge up in the fteep mountains, which they are able to run up almoft as nimbly 1776. Jaauary.
27f 72-2
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