170 SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. — A WATERFALL. 28, 29 April, 
before. This animal, and, indeed, many other species of antelope, 
remove from one part of the country to another, and sometimes to 
the distance of many day's-journeys, according to the state of the 
pastures, and season of the year. 
As I passed my hut, I silently thanked it for the shelter which it 
had so opportunely afforded me ; and without which, the fever might 
possibly have gained a fatal ascendency. 
The heap of tnanure in the cattle-kraal, which we found burning 
at that time, was even now scarcely extinguished. If by any means 
the ground of a cattle-pound, which consists entirely of manure, 
happen to take fire, it will continue, without producing flame, to burn 
for a great length of time, depending only on the quantity of fuel : 
nor will rain very easily quench it. The fire generally makes very 
slow progress ; creeping along the ground, and sometimes beneath 
the surface, in a remarkable manner. It is the nitrous salts which so 
long support the combustion. 
When we ascended the mountain we turned to the west, leaving 
my former road on the right, and soon afterwards came to the hut of 
Hans Van der Merwe, where we halted to dine. At this place, near 
the house, I was shown, as a remarkable circumstance, a deep glen, 
enclosed by rocky cliffs or precipices, in which peach trees grew, as it 
were, wild, and sowed themselves : the warm sheltered situation 
causing them to bear abundance of fruit. 
After this refreshment we resumed our journey, travelling over 
a level country, bounded on either hand by mountains of the table- 
form already noticed on our former passage over this part of 
Sneeuwberg. The waggon halted while I went to examine a waterfall 
at a short distance on the left of the road ; having just crossed the 
stream by which it was supplied. By falling over a perpendicular 
precipice of great depth, into a woody glen below, this stream forms 
a very singular unbroken cascade, which would have afforded, from 
different points of view, several interesting sketches. I was, however, 
obliged to content myself with taking that one which best exhibited 
its situation and nature. 
Our road presented nothing remarkable ; or rather, perhaps, the 
