Account of the Fish River Bush, South Africa. 75 



the Kat River junction is habitable for sheep-farmers, during 

 peace time, but totally abandoned from its untenableness 

 during the war. That part below has seldom been occupied 

 at all, except by the military posts here and there. The 

 Fish River Valley in ordinary seasons is almost entirely des- 

 titute of any water, except what the river itself contains, so 

 that the soil is universally very dry, and in consequence 

 almost totally unfit for agricultural purposes. In fact no 

 good soil of any depth exists, except in the flats along the 

 margin of the river, and that is of a sandy, reddish clay. 

 The rest of the ground is of a stony, sandy character, the 

 surface-stratum in large areas composed of a dark, loose, 

 broken-up clayey slate, under which lies the substratum of 

 hard quartzose sandstone, which forms in horizontal layers 

 the perpendicular faces of the krantzes. Some undulating 

 parts of the valley have ground of loose sandstone rock, with 

 clay, and are of a yellowish colour in appearance. 



Some few small tributary streams have their channels 

 through the valley to the river, rising in the neighbouring 

 high country ; but the water, though running only a few miles 

 from its sources, soon loses itself by evaporation, or sinking 

 ere it traverses the confines of the great valley, or else 

 begins to stagnate in pools which, in dry seasons, contain 

 brackish water. Such is the case with the Botha's River, 

 the Kingo, and nearly all the others. These streams, how- 

 ever, in a very rainy season, become torrents, and rush with 

 impetuous velocity over their stony bottoms, coloured white 

 with mud and debris ; but this surface-water soon expends 

 itself, the fountains not being strong. The Fish River itself 

 is often stagnant, and sometimes stinking with animal refuse 

 and vegetable remains, in long dry seasons, especially about 

 March or October. The heavy rains in the upper country, 

 usually falling about April and December, bring down enor- 

 mous volumes of water, coloured with the red clay washed 

 from its banks, and as thick nearly as mud itself, so that 

 even horses and cattle will scarcely drink it. Its rise on 

 these yearly occasions amounts to from 15 to 30 feet, in 

 particular places flooding over its deep clayey banks, and 

 carrying down a great quantity of bush and dead timber torn 



