30 I'UESIDENT's ADUItKSS. 



Society, Capetown, 1920. The description f)f the northern border is on 

 pp. 41-2 of the Dutch transcription and on p. 195 of the translation. On 

 pp. 43 and 197 it is incidentally mentioned that the journey by wagon 

 from Graaff Eeinet to the Cape could only be undertaken at certain seasons, 

 a circumstance referred to by travellers who wrote earlier accounts of 

 these regions. 



(71) George Thompson, " Travels and Adventures in Southern Africa," 

 London. 1827, Chapter II, especially pp. 334-343. The " drought of the 

 climate (in Albany) is emphasized. Thompson visited the Fish River in 

 1823 and wrote of it: "The dreary and desolate aspect of the country up 

 the Fish River, from Grahamstown to Roode-Wall has been frequently 

 noted by former travellers, and seems indeed to be scarcely susceptible in 

 any respect of improvement. The farms ' few and far between ' are 

 mere vee-platzen or cattle-places, without in general the comfort of a 

 garden, or the means of cultivating a single blade of corn." Thompson's 

 book has good accounts of the north-^west and Bechuanaland. 



(72) The diary is reprinted in " Reizen in Zuid-Afrika in de HoUandse 

 Tijd," vol. I, pp. 139-211, 's-gravenhage, 1916. (Linschoten Society's 

 publication). This is easier of access than Valentyn's book or the 

 translation by Buchenroder in the " South African Quarterly Journal," 

 1829-32. The latter appears to be incomplete. 



(73) Le Vaillant, " Voyage de F. Le Vaillant dans I'interieur de 

 I'Afrique," Paris, An. VI (1798), vol. II, p. 353. He was urged to hasten 

 across the Karroo in February on his way S.S.W. from Sneeuwberg before 

 the heat had dried the little stagnant water which might be found there; 

 he failed to find water in the Traka. 



A. Sparrman, " A Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, etc." London, 

 • 1785. He found verv little water at Commadagga in December, vol. II, 

 p. 90. 



Paterson, " A Narrative of Four Journeys into the Country of the 

 Hottentots and Caffraria in 1777-9," London, 1789. 



C. P. Thunberg, " Travels in Europe, Africa and Asia," London, 

 1795. 4 vols. Vol. II, p. 101, the "Karroo cannot be inhabited; and 

 scarcely any animals reside there, except for a short time in or immediately 

 after the rainy season, when a little salt water is found here and there in 

 some of the hollow places." Also p. 204. 



J. Bairow , "Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa," 2nd 

 edition, London, ISOG. 



Adam Tas's Diary (edited by L. Fouche, with a translation by A. C. 

 Paterson, London, 1914) has many notes on the weather at Stellenbosch 

 from June, 1705, to February, 1706. Of December 25th, 1705, he says: "I 

 doubt if it ever happened before that in the heart of summer there had been' 

 so fearsomes a rain," p. 87. Residents at the Cape will recall such instances, 

 one was in 1900. 



Useful indications as to where to look for notes on climate in South 

 Africa will be found in J. G. Gamble's catalogue of books and papers on 

 climate, etc., in Trans. S.A. Phil. Soc. vol. Ill, pp. 158-196. 



(74) J. Barrow, op. cit., vol. I, p. 54. 



(75) J. Barrow, op. cit., p. 289. The rain fell in Camdeboo and 

 Sneeuwberg. He does not mention rain further west than Camdel)oo, and 

 he may have thought that some of the area was in the catchment of the 

 Kariega, but most of the Camdeboo rain and all from the southern flank 

 of Sneeuwberg would feed the Sundays River. 



(76) W. J. Burchell, " Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa," 

 vol. I, 1822. vol. II, 1824. Vol. I, chapter XI. In vol. II, p. 299, there 

 is an account of Kuruman spring, the largest he had seen in South Africa. 

 Of the Kuruman River " it is said that in the wet season it is joined by 

 the Mosowa : and that in those years when an unusual quantity of rain 

 has fallen, the united streams find tneir way to the Gariep." " Unlike 

 other rivers, the Kuruman is largest at its source, and rises from the 

 earth a full and broad stream, which, by the combined powers of evapora- 

 tion by the sini niul of absorption by the sandy soil, is gradually lessened 



