1812. CRYPTOGAMIC VEGETABLES. — NECKLACE OF ENTRAILS. 209 
which I have therefore marked as, Rushy Station. Here the water 
was found still to continue perfectly fresh : and it is probably only at 
the lowest part of this river, and in the dry season, that it becomes 
brackish. 
At this place I found Marsilea quadrifolia, an European plant, 
growing in the water and along the bed of the river, in abundance. 
The wide dissemination of many species of cri/ptogamic vegetables 
all over the earth, is an interesting fact, and one which might 
deserve particular attention : from a philosophical view of it, there 
is much to be learnt. Instances of a similar dispersion of what are 
called phcenogamous plants^ are much more rare, and may often be 
traced to some visible cause, such as the current of rivers or of the 
ocean, or the winds ; or even to the instrumentality of man. I shall 
not here stop to discuss the subject, but shall merely remark that 
the seeds of cryptogamic vegetables, being infinitely finer than those 
of the other class, and so excessively minute as to be, in most cases, 
invisible, even by the aid of the strongest microscope, are more 
easily borne along by currents of air : and this consideration should 
be taken in addition, when contemplating philosophically the ad- 
mirable harmony and wisdom of their primitive location ; by which 
term I would express, the situation assigned to each species at the 
creation or commencement of the present order of created objects 
upon the surface of this globe. 
We were visited by a few natives : they were personally strangers, 
but, having long heard of our passing through their country, they 
came to us in the usual friendly manner. Some of them were orna- 
mented with a fresh necklace of twisted entrails. This is one of the 
most common ornaments, not only of the Bushmen and other tribes of 
the Hottentot race, but also of the Bichuana nations. To imagine that 
these entrails are hung round their necks just in the same state in 
which they are taken out of the animal, would be to entertain an 
exceedingly false idea of them ; but it is one which those persons, 
who do not think, in giving an account of a foreign country, that the 
truth is sufficiently interesting, endeavour to create, supposing that 
by such means they render the proverbial filth iness of Hottentots 
VOL. II. EE 
