BOTANICAL INFORMATION - . 123 



and ice during three or four months. The climate of these 

 mountains is very severe, and dangerous to persons who are 

 on their march during bad w ather; and several lives have 

 been lost at such periods. It is certain that the feeling of 

 cold, on those high mountain regions, is more cutting than 

 in a plain country, even where there is only the same degree 

 of cold, but where the pressure of the atmosphere is greater 

 than on elevated spots ; and it seems, the less the pressure 

 of the atmosphere acts upon our skin, the greater is the 

 sensation of cold ; or perhaps, the more do we give of our 

 bodily heat to the surrounding atmosphere. 



We left Cradock on the 5th of November, proceed- 

 ing in a northerly direction, and passed, at a short dis- 

 tance higher up the Great Fish River whose course we 

 followed nearly all day, another mineral spring, which is 

 used as a bath, and known to be highly efficacious in rheu- 

 matic complaints. From this place we were continually 

 ascending towards an elevated region. The appearance of 

 the country, with regard to vegetation, was like the Karroo, 

 intermixed, more or less, with grass and other useful herbs, 

 chiefly of the Natural Orders Composite, Byttneriacea, Ge- 

 raniacea;, Stipce, Agrostideae, Festucacea, the three latter par- 

 ticularly adapted to sheep farming, of which w r e passed several 

 extensive establishments that day. The weather was hot 

 during the afternoon, and the northern horizon assumed 

 a very dark appearance, and before evening the rain poured 

 down in streams, accompanied with awful thunder and flashes 

 of lightning. We expected that this weather would be soon 

 over, and pursued our journey ; but the rain continued with 

 increased vehemence, so that the whole level tract over which 

 we travelled, was quite inundated, and like a large stream. 

 The night commenced without my finding any spot where 

 we could span-out; and there was imminent danger, for 

 the ground became swampy from the heavy rains, that 

 our waggons would stick fast in the mud. We reached, at 

 last, a safe place, on the right bank of the Great Fish River, 

 where we could safely remain for that night. The weather 



