Birds, 9811 



B , S , H and I, having provided ourselves with all the 



necessaries for an abundant luncheon, started in Mr. Ferreira's buck- 

 wagon for the Kei Poort,* that is to say the place where the Zwarte 

 Keif runs through a pass in the hills. Our vehicle, drawn by ten 

 oxen, was one of the ordinary tilted wagons of the colony, though a 

 good specimen of its kind, and the only representative of a seat was a 

 sort of frame-work, upon which, 1 believe, during long journeys it is 

 the custom to stretch a mattrass and bedding. 



Our route lay over the nekt of the Windvogelberg, just above the 

 Post, and thence along the Tylden road to the valley of the Kei. The 

 descent, after we had crossed the nek, was steep and sudden, and the 

 track much broken by ruts and large stones, which rendered the jolting 

 and shaking something positively painful, exceeding my worst antici- 

 pations and all my previous experience in land travelling. 



After about three hours of such journeying, through a country covered 

 with coarse grass and a thin growth of mimosa trees {Acacia horrida), 

 we reached our destination, and outspanned§ within two hundred 

 yards of the river. The distance between the Post at Windvogelberg 

 and the Poort is said to be eight or nine miles, and we supposed that 

 the estimate was nearly correct, judging by the time the journey 

 occupied, and the rate at which the oxen travelled. 



Before we commenced the descent I have spoken of, S- saw a 



paauw II [Otis] of some kind fly across the road in advance of us, and 

 he immediately gave chase, in the hope of getting a shot; but fortune 

 did not so favour him, and the bird continued its flight for a very long 

 distance, finally disappearing on the tops of some hills upon our right. 



Just as S got back to the wagon, a huge green snake was espied 



crossing the road, and an immediate onslaught was made upon it: the 

 creature was speedily despatched by the aid of the long wagon-whip, 

 and its carcase deposited in the vehicle, to be taken home with us and 

 preserved. Unfortunately the heat of the day defeated our intentions 

 in this respect, and, on our return to the Post in the evening, decom- 



* The literal meaning of " poorl" is gate: the expression is applied at the Cape 

 to most of the passes through the hills. 



t "Zwarte Kei," the Black Kei. It rises in the Great Winterberg Mountain, 

 about 7000 feet above the sea. It is the main branch of the Great Kei. 



X "Nek" mean? literally a neck. It is applied to the dips in the hills over which 

 the roads generally run. 



§ The colonial phrase for unharnessing and taking out horses or oxen from a 

 vehicle. 



II Literally "peacock:" the larger bustards are so called by the Cape colonists. 



