19 June 1812. TRAVELLING OVER A ROCKY SURFACE. 
261 
same kind as that which has been noticed in the country between 
Klaarwater and Spiiigslang fountain. In other places this pavement 
consisted exchisively of a coarse bhieish-black cherty flint : and fre- 
quently extensive spaces exhibited a bare level surface of the white 
primitive limestone-rock, first observed about the former place. 
The waggons suffered the most violent jolts ; and we now felt the 
great difference between riding over a country strewed with loose 
blocks and stones, and one where the surface, though flat, is formed 
of a fixed mass of rock. In the first, the stones, however large, give 
way a little to the force of the wheels, and the jolts are thereby much 
softened, if such an expression maybe used ; but the obdurate immove- 
able resistance of fixed rocks, and the peculiar violence of the jolting 
they cause, are hardly to be conceived without having been actually 
experienced. No artificial pavement can produce an effect equally 
disagreeable ; for in such there is, speaking comparatively, a certain 
degree of elasticity, the effect of which is not imaginary, nor is it 
imperceptible to those who have ridden over a natural pavement of 
solid unyielding rock. 
Although the waggons did not appear to have suffered any 
damage by this day's-journey, yet it is not possible that they could 
have escaped without, in some respect, receiving injury ; and I now 
could clearly perceive that a good and strong-built vehicle, is one of 
the most important of the preparations for such an expedition. 
Besides the strength of workmanship, the greatest attention is neces- 
sary to be paid to the quality of the materials ; that the wood be well 
seasoned and of a sort which will not easily split. Much of the safety 
of a waggon depends on the nature of the iron; this should be of the 
tough and malleable kind, rather than the hard, which being generally 
of the quality termed ' short,' is very liable to break asunder. 
At an early hour of the day, we arrived at a spring embosomed 
in rocky mountains, and called by the Hottentots, Klip Fontein * 
(Rock Fountain). 
* In order to distinguish this fi'om the Klip Fontein of the Cisgariepine, described in 
the first volume at page 294., we were obhged to refer to it by the name of Kora, or, 
Koraqua Klip Fontein ; having ah'eady designated the other by that of Bushman Klip 
Fojitein. 
