524 Astronomical Society. 



assistant slept, was a part of the granary, 6 feet long, and 7 feet 

 wide, separated from that in which the sector was by a curtain, 

 which formed a sort of partition ; and beyond was a little plaqp for 

 the slaves. Now if this platform was the site of the granary inha- 

 bited by Lacaille, it is very difficult to account for these confined 

 dimensions. It can hardly be supposed that the place was filled 

 with grain, for LacalUe's visit took place about a month before the 

 time of han-est. Besides, it was distinctly asserted by Ferrit Cot- 

 see, an aged inhabitant of the place, that the foundation in question 

 was the ruins of his father's dwelling-house. It therefore became 

 necessary, in order to arrive at the facts, to inquire into the evi- 

 dence on which Captain Everest had fixed on the spot ; to investi- 

 gate the truth of Ferrit Cotsee's statement ; and, lastly, to examine 

 the place, by turning up the sod. As none of these jilans could be 

 carried into execution immediately, Mr. Maclear, in the meantime, 

 returned to the Observatory. 



Captain Everest's statement, which is given in the first volume 

 of the Memoirs, p. 261, is as follows : " In reference to this matter, 

 it may not be amiss to mention, that the daughter of the quondam 

 proprietor of Klyp-Fonteyn, now an aged lady, named Letchie 

 Schalkevyk, is still in existence, and not only gives a narrative 

 perfectly agreeing, but has pointed out the very platform on which 

 the gi-anaiy once stood." On applying to Mr. Hertzog, the assist- 

 ant surveyor-general at the Cape, who had accompanied Captain 

 Everest to Klyp-Fonteyn, for information respecting the particulars 

 of their journey, Mr. Maclear ascertained that the aforesaid lady, 

 who appears to have resided at some distance, was not brought to 

 the place herself, but sent her son, who pointed out the site, ac- 

 cording to directions from his mother. The son himself could have 

 no local knowledge, for no one of the name of Schalkevjdv had re- 

 sided at Klyp-Fonteyn within the memory of the oldest inhabitant 

 living in 1838; it may therefore be conceived that he would be 

 likely to point to the only ruin visible, as the site which his mother 

 had described to him from memory. This evidence is obviously not to 

 be put in comparison with that of Ferrit- Cotsee, who had constantly 

 resided at the place during sixty- eight years, and remembered 

 having lived in the house over the foundation In question. 



When preparing for his second journey to Klyp-Fonteyn, with 

 Bradley's sector, Mr. Maclear applied to his Excellency General 

 Napier, and obtained a corporal of sappers and private from the ar- 

 tillery corps, under his former companion, Lieut. Williams. Arrived 

 at Klyp-Fonteyn, he found the widow of the brother of Ferrit Cot- 

 see, who had been married at the age of seventeen, forty-eight years 

 ago, and had known Klyp-Fonteyn ever since. At her marriage, 

 she lived with her mother-in-law, who died at the age of eighty, 

 and has been dead thirteen years. She had often heard her mother- 

 in-law speak of the French astronomer's visit. When made ac- 

 quainted with Mr. Maclear's object, she took him to a spot where 

 was a ruin in her early years, stated by her mother-in-law to be the 

 ruins of the house of Oker Schallvevyk, the father of the lady referred 



