DESCRIPTIVE SCENERY. 29 



Early on the ensuing morning, Thackwray pro- 

 ceeded with me to the Buffalo river, under expecta- 

 tion of falling in with some of the hippopotami, with 

 which it was said to abound ; but after anxiously 

 watching the reedy banks, and the dark silent channel 

 for a considerable time, we returned without grati- 

 fying our curiosity, or having noticed in our ramble 

 any living objects beyond a numerous flock of plovers 

 (Charadrii coronati), and a few other birds of a 

 smaller description. Taking leave of Mr. Kay and 

 his family after breakfast, we proceeded to the Rev. 

 William Shaw's station, called " Wesleyville," a 

 short day's journey from Mount Coke. The atmo- 

 sphere, as is usual in this part of the country, was 

 remarkably soft and clear; and our ride was again 

 rendered most agreeable by the pleasing diversity of 

 hill and dale, which we traversed in our course. 

 The scenery was on all sides picturesque in the ex- 

 treme : at one time we crossed a broad and extensive 

 plain, covered with an endless variety of beautiful 

 shrubs and flowers, which bloomed spontaneously in 

 rugged and apparently barren tracts of land, their 

 rich and different colours forming a delightful con- 

 trast to the uniform sterility of the soil from which 

 they grew ; at another time we wound our way over 

 lofty ridges in the kloofs of which the callodendrum 

 and sideroxylon, sheltered from the winds and nou- 

 rished by small streams issuing from the cavities of 

 the rock, grew to a considerable size. Late in the 



