BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 645 
Vyge-Kraal with one waggon, a Hottentot driver and leader, 
and fourteen very poor oxen, which we are assured, will im- 
prove in the good country we may expect soon to reach. 
Hardly, however, had we left Mr. Fry's door, than one of the 
wheelers fell down and the waggon passed over him, though - 
without doing him much harm, and another ox appearing too 
weak to go far, we left these two animals behind and pursued 
our way with only twelve. The stubborness of some of 
our cattle, and the debility of others, compelled us to make 
an early halt for the night, and leaving Punyer to take 
care of the waggon, I returned to Vyge-Kraal. The follow- 
ing morning we started with the full complement of oxen, 
intending to reach Pompion's Kraal, and were within four 
miles of it, when the animals gave in, and we let them 
all loose, hoping to find them fresh next day, but were 
disappointed, for we had to lead two for some way, and 
finally to leave them behind us, while we sent the waggon 
on to Pompion's Kraal. At this place I received disheart- 
ening intelligence from a man who had been sent far up the 
country to purchase beasts. The small-pox had broken out 
among his people, and he was obliged to leave them ill in 
the field, where he fears that many must have died, the 
farmers being so ‘terrified by the disease that they refused 
to afford help, or to allow any traveller even to approach 
their dwellings. 
_ We stopped two days at Pompion’s Kraal to recruit our 
oxen, and at last found it necessary to start with twelve, leaving 
the other two with their heads on the ground, apparently 
dying. The weather was very bad, heavy rain and much 
lightning, and to add to our troubles, some dogs found out 
Our stock of meat, and stole it at night from the back of the 
waggon, where we kept it rolled in a sheep’s skin. The rain - 
too put out our fire, so that we were unable to cook any sup- 
Per. On the 26th of May we halted by a small stream near 
Berg River, where I gathered several pretty species of Ozalis, 
_ not known in England. Ithink that the difficulty which cul- — — 3 
~ fivators find in making Cape bulbs succeed with us, is — 
