COUDVELD. — DEEP SNOW. — BUFFALO RIVER. 29, 30 April, 
and white. Or, perhaps, it will be more intelligible to a painter, if I 
describe it as being compounded of pure white and a moderate tint 
of vermilion, without the admixture of any other color ; and there- 
fore, not strictly to be called the complexion of a European. Her 
nair was exactly of the same woolly nature as that of her country- 
women, but it was of a singularly pale hue, nearly approaching to 
that which is termed flaxen. Her features, however, were those of a 
true Caffre. 
Southward from this place, is a very elevated tract of land, called 
Coudveld (Cold-land ; or the Cold Country), which, seen from a 
distance, presents the form of a table-mountain. On the summit of 
this, there is a single farm-house ; it was inhabited by a respectable 
Dutch widow, who, among her neighbours, passed under the fami- 
liar name of Hannah Coudveld. This spot is considered by every 
Sneeuwberger, as undoubtedly the coldest place in the whole 
colony. 
Van Heerden assured me that, at his house, snow had sometimes 
fallen in such quantities, that he had seen it lying of the depth of 
two feet : but probably this depth is not usual, or, at least, it may 
be partly occasioned by drifting winds. The places along the upper 
part of the Sea-cow river, are said to be some of the coldest habita- 
tions on Sneeuwberg (Sneeberg). That river, in the dry season of 
the year, is merely a chain of ponds, called ' Zeekoe gatten' (Seacow, 
or Hippopotamus, holes\ 
Near the house, were the largest ' Spanish reeds' * which I had 
observed in any part of the colony : but I do not recollect having 
seen the Bamboo, which requires a warmer climate, growing at any 
place on the Snow Mountains, or in the Achter-sneeuwberg. 
After breakfast we took leave, and, resuming our journey, came 
in three quarters of an hour to the Buffeh rivier (Buffalo river), the 
highest branch of the Camtoos river, one of the larger streams which 
flow into the ' Cape sea.' On the banks of the Buffalo river, which 
we now crossed three times, I noticed a willow, which appeared to be 
* Arundo Donax L. 
