Chap. II.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 9 



of Butler's team, making in all twenty-four oxen, 

 we ascended the Zwartcop mountain by a steep and 

 difficult acclivity during the first night, and en- 

 camped near an extensive grove of aloe-trees in full 

 blossom. Thence, a rugged and circuitous track of 

 about one hundred miles in length constituted the 

 road, the scenery comprising a mixture of barren, 

 unprofitable valleys, and stony, uninteresting hills, 

 varied occasionally by deserted farms, where depo- 

 pulation had stayed the hand of the husbandman, 

 and the blackened walls of roofless cottages which 

 had been sacked by the Kafirs during their late 

 irruption. 



Throughout this miserable country, which had 

 been described to us as abounding with game of 

 every description, our diligent researches were once 

 repaid by a glimpse, on the distant horizon, of 

 three ostriches, and about a score of spring-bucks. 

 This event occurred at a place called Quagga's Flat, 

 where we halted a day, and were treated with hos- 

 pitality by three English settlers, brothers named 

 PuUen. Occasionally, too, the light and graceful 

 rhee-buck was to be seen bounding over the hill- 

 tops, or up their sides; stopping at intervals, stamp- 

 ing with his slight fore-foot, and sending down the 

 breeze his not-to-be-mistaken whistle, as he gazed 

 at the waggons winding beneath him. Besides 

 gin-shops, there are two inns on the road ; the first 

 at Sunday River, the second at Bushman's Hill; 

 but at neither of these could we procure bread or 

 forage, and the country not producing a single blade 



B5 



