146 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



flannel, which I had previously done for years : I can, 

 therefore, confidently recommend the country to those 

 that suffer from that most grieVous affliction. Colds, 

 coughs, and sore throats are of rare occurrence ; and 

 scientific persons, in whose opinions I can place the ut- 

 most reliance,* have informed me that the frontier dis- 

 tricts of the colony, and still more the remoter dis- 

 tricts to the northward, are the finest in the world for 

 persons laboring under any pulmonary complaint. At 

 times I felt very lonely when I returned to camp for 

 want of some old companion to welcome me, and dis- 

 cuss with me, in the evenings, over my gipsy fire, the 

 adventures and incidents of the day : in general, how- 

 ever, when the sport was good, I enjoyed excellent 

 spirits. 



On reaching my wagons I breakfasted, after which 

 we inspanned and trekked east along a very rarely 

 trodden old wagon-track, making for a small fountain 

 situated on the borders of a large pan, which lay in a 

 broad htillow in the center of an extensive open tract 

 of undulating country. Here the entire country was 

 of a soft, sandy character, and utterly uninhabited ; 

 the plains were covered with long, rough heath and 

 other low scrubby bushes, intermingled with much 

 sweet grass. Ranges of hills of goodly height and con- 

 siderable extent intersected the plains, and bounded the 

 view at various distances on every side. Ancient for- 

 ests of picturesque and venerable mimosas, interspersed 

 with high, gray-leaved bushes, detached and in groups, 

 stretched along the bases of these mountain-ranges, 

 their breadth extending about a mile into the surround- 

 ing extensive campaign country. We reached the small 

 fountain in the dark, our road leading through the salt- 

 pan, where we halted for an hour for the purpose of 



