344 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



they brought these animals down from the Table Mountain, 

 on which they had been kept during that fearful time. Having 

 purchased several, of a suitable quality, we proceeded, about 

 the latter end of April, towards the interior. The general 

 appearance of the country and the character of vegetation 

 nearly resembling those tracts over which we had travelled 

 since we left the Caledon River, very little of interest could 

 be added to the collection, especially in botany ; it was also 

 winter, and the dry season, when vegetation is almost para- 

 lyzed. In every direction rose clouds of smoke, caused by 

 the custom which the natives have of firing the dry grass. 

 This they do, partly to encourage a new growth in the fol- 

 lowing summer, but principally because they thus ensure an 

 easy course over the plains, and also dislodge and exterminate 

 numerous reptiles and beasts of prey, lions and others, which 

 harbor among the luxuriant remains of vegetation. As the 

 Ruminants living in these tracts, however numerous, can only 

 consume a part of the rich pasturage, the practice of burning 

 the dried vegetation, which is adopted by all the sub-tribes of 

 the Betchuana nation, so far as we have been amongst them, 

 to the remote distance near to the tropics of Capricorn, may 

 have also a beneficial effect on the health of the people living 

 in those parts, where the putrid matter of a rich vegeta- 

 tion, during the hot and moist season, would undoubtedly 

 generate miasma destructive to man, as is the case along 

 the east coast, about Delagoa Bay, &c. Sometimes, how- 

 ever, the aborigines are saved this trouble by myriads of 

 locusts, which eat up every thing, scarcely leaving a blade in 

 the tract over which they pass ; and as these insects seem to 

 please the native palate, great quantities are collected during 

 the time of their appearance, and turned to a useful purpose 

 as food. 



(To be continued.) 



