20 BOTANICAL EXCURSIONS 
had stopped at Caledon, and after seeing whatever was to be 
seen there, had left it again before I reached it with the 
waggons. We went on to the house of the field-commandant 
Linde, on the Zonder-einde River, where I arrived thoroughly 
fatigued, having been thirteen hours in the waggon. The 
distance travelled this day was sixty-five miles. 
March 24.—From hence we travelled for about three 
hours along the Zonder-einde River, a pretty stream, the 
course of which was easy to trace through the barren plain 
by the fresher vegetation on its margin. It runs eastward, 
and joins the Breede River, which we crossed in the course 
of the day, a little above the junction. The valley of the 
former river is bounded on the N. by a black wall of moun- 
tains, ranging from W.N.W. to E.S.E.; in other directions 
our view extended over wide dreary plains. It was in the 
course of this day’s journey, near a house called Ecksteen’s, 
that I first saw the white-thorned Acacia,* called by the 
colonists Doornboom or Wittedoorn, which in the more 
eastern parts of the colony is one of the commonest of 
plants, but does not approach nearer to Cape Town than this. 
It is remarkable that Le Vaillant, when he travelled this 
way, not more than sixty years ago, saw large herds of 
Bonteboks and Hartebeests in this part of the country, near 
the hot springs (Caledon,) and the Zonder-einde River. At 
the present day, these quadrupeds are not to be met with 
except on the extreme limits of the colony, or beyond it. 
The famous Blue Antelope, which was supposed to have 
been peculiar to Zwellendam district, is now believed to be 
merely a variety of the Roan Antelope;t but whatever it 
may have been, it has long since disappeared; indeed, in 
Le Vaillant’s time it was so rare that he never saw more than 
three specimens. 
After crossing the rugged stony bed of the Breede River, 
in which at this time there was but little water, we ap- 
* Acacia horrida. 
t See Dr. Smith's Mlustrations of South African Zoology. No. 12. 
