HOUW HOEK AND STANFORD IOI 



bush, inasmuch as it only changes colour with the bush 

 itself, and does not fade or die away into a colour 

 foreign to its surroundings. 



We made a further excursion to the Bot River Vley 

 a few days later, going this time as far as the large open 

 sheet of water that lay near the coast, but although we 

 obtained the use of a rather dilapidated old boat, we 

 failed to discover any nests. 



The Dutchman at the farm where we put up made 

 himself pleasant enough, but he either could not, or 

 would not, speak to us in English. The conversation 

 therefore had to be carried on through the medium of 

 Mr. W. Mr. W.'s Dutch was always an entertainment 

 to us, though I am not hinting for a moment that he 

 was not a perfect master of the language, but it was 

 rather a curious fact that, whereas we were unable to 

 understand what the Dutchmen said, we could always 

 make out in some measure the drift of Mr. W.'s con- 

 versation. I think^ his Dutch relied to some extent on 

 a crack of the whip and a gruff voice, and I know that 

 I often detected in his conversation an English word, 

 decked "fore and aft" with a Dutch prefix and affix; 

 some word having for its root a round old English oath, 

 too, would now and then crop up, garnished in the 

 same way. Perhaps he clung to these latter as he did 

 to his Chippendale chairs and his books, regarding 

 them as relics of the old country not lightly to be parted 

 with. As he drove us home over the pass he pointed 

 out a deep kloof, in the rocky face of which one of the 

 hunted "tigers" had taken refuge from its pursuers, 

 successfully in this instance, as the retreat was almost 

 unapproachable, and at any rate the object of the hunt 



