APPENDIX. 181 
mountainous, especially on the north, and it is evident, 
from this traveller’s observation, he was treading a very 
elevated re gion. Rainwas abundant, this being the winter 
season, and great cold was experienced. The route tra- 
velled in many places was very sandy, and sometimes well 
covered with forests of mimosas, traversed by fine rivulets, 
which became much more frequent as he neared the 
limits of his excursion. He passed several pools and lakes ; 
some were brackish, and one called the Choo-y-my-Mirre- 
booh, in latitude 25° 50’, longitude 25° 50’, five miles in 
circumference, perfectly saline, probably lying over a bed 
of rock salt, the most likely cause of the numerous saltpans 
of the colony, and others of the interior, situated several 
hundreds of miles from the coast. | 
On his way to Kurreechane, and in about lat. 25° 45’, 
and long. 26° 15’, he visited Mashow, the capital of the 
Battamachas, then having a population of twelve thousand 
souls, and like the other Bechuana towns surrounded by ex- 
tensive fields of Guinea corn; and a little in advance of the 
place fell in with ruins of some stone kraals, indicating the 
position of a former race superior to the present Bechuanas, 
who are not accustomed to build with such substantial ma- 
terials. About forty miles beyond the city of Mashow he 
crossed the Moloppo, a fine river (mentioned but not seen 
by Burchell): near its source it was thirty feet wide, and 
two feet deep. This stream is kuown to join the Kuruman, 
after a long run, and with it in rainy seasons to reach the 
Gareep. Dr. Campbell represents the country as being in 
many places covered with a rocky pavement, in the inter- 
stices of which grass grows with great luxuriance; and the 
hills being formed of sand-stone, from which it appears to 
be similar in its geological characters to that described by 
