Chap. V.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 29 



boor, having been fearfully clawed in a clumsy 

 attempt to destroy a leopard. Soon after, a courier 

 overtook our cavalcade, having been hired, at an 

 expense of four Rix dollars, to gallop after us to 

 recover a debt of jive, which, in the hurry of de- 

 parture, we had neglected to settle — an ominous 

 proof that the good people of Graaff Reinet had 

 little expectation of seeing us again. Our friend 

 Mr. Campbell, together with Mr. Lloyd, His Ma- 

 jesty's Special Justice, and several other gentlemen, 

 joined our party in the evening, and remained with 

 us until the following day. 



As we advanced through the elevated region of 

 Sneuvvberg Proper, the vegetation became visibly 

 more abundant, and the air sensibly colder. That 

 greatest of all rarities in South Africa, a real turf 

 or sod, was to be seen interspersed with mat rushes. 

 Around, nothing presented itself in the landscape 

 but rocky mountains, of which the summits were 

 enveloped in mist and snow : the unsettled state of 

 the weather heightening in no small degree the 

 sublimity and frowning grandeur of the scene. 

 Peak towering above peak, the lofty and broken 

 mountains appeared to crowd in one upon the other 

 — the Spitscop, a remarkable and pre-eminently 

 lofty crag, soaring above the whole : whilst the rude 

 and bold features of nature were for miles unmingled 

 with any trace of human Avorks, beyond the beaten 

 track that we were following along steep acclivities. 

 But for this, and an occasional wreath of smoke, 

 ascending from the bosom of some sunken valley, 



