CLIMATE MYNHEER BESTA. 65 



sea, off which a healthy breeze prevails throughout the 

 greater part of the year. At certain seasons, ho\yev- 

 er, northerly breezes prevail: these are termed by the 

 colonists " hot winds." On these occasions the wind 

 feels as though it were blowing off a furnace in a glass 

 foundery, being heated in its passage over the burning 

 sands of the Great Kalihari desert. 



In Cradock I engaged another Hottentot, named 

 Jacob, in the capacity of after-rider. Having followed 

 the course of the Fish River for a distance of about 

 nine miles, our road mclined to the right in a more 

 northerly direction, and we here bade that stream a 

 final adieu. Two more marches through a succession 

 of wide, undulating, sterile plains, bounded on all sides 

 by bleak and barren mountains, brought us to the 

 borders of the immense flats surrounding the Thebus 

 Mountain. 



Having followed along the eastern bank an insignifi- 

 cant little stream dignified by the appellation of the 

 Brak River, I arrived at the farm of Mynheer Besta, 

 a pleasant, hospitable Boer, and a field cornet of the dis- 

 trict, which means a sort of resident magistrate. Here 

 we halted to breakfast, and Besta, who is a keen sports- 

 man, entertained me w^ith various anecdotes and ad- 

 ventures which had occurred to him during the earlier 

 days of his sporting career in Albany, where he had 

 once resided. He informed me that the black wilde- 

 beest and springbok were extremely numerous on the 

 plains immediately beyond his farm, which made me 

 resolve to saddle up and go in quest of them as soon as 

 I had breakfasted. The flesh of these animals forms 

 one of the chief articles of food among the Boers and" 

 their servants who inhabit the districts in wliich they 

 are abundant; and the skulls and horns of hundreds 



