270 
AN ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLE OF TRAVELLING. 
21 June, 
ciples of this mode of travelling ; as the violent and forced speed of 
those who would pass through these regions more for the sake of 
saying they had seen them, than of collecting correct information and 
of understanding what they saw, would strongly prove, by the great 
number of cattle they would wear out, that hasty travellers should 
never seat themselves behind a team of oxen. This valuable animal, 
whose natural pace, as I have before remarked, is quite expeditious 
enough for the observer, and admirer, of nature, ill deserves, in return 
for his daily labors, to be denied the time necessary for grazing and 
rest, and to be forced onwards at the caprice of his driver, till at last, 
through want of food and strength he sinks under the yoke and, 
without remorse, is left to perish. Nothing but the safety of the 
whole party, or the urgency of peculiar and inevitable circumstances, 
could ever, during my whole journey, induce me to forget the con- 
sideration due to my cattle ; always regarded as faithful friends whose 
assistance was indispensable. There may be in the world, men who 
possess a nature so hard, as to think these sentiments misapplied ; 
but I leave them to find, if they can, in the coldness of their own 
hearts, a satisfaction equal to that which I have enjoyed in paying a 
grateful attention to animals by whose services I have been so much 
benefited. 
Our course still continued over a level surface, but with many 
rocky hills on either hand. The mountains northward of the Gariep 
no longer exhibited that tedious, though singular, uniformity of tabular 
summits, which I have noticed as being so common in the Cisgarie- 
pine. The soil was a reddish sand, almost every where covered with 
the tall corn-like grass, before described ; through which, a few 
ostriches were seen stalking, fully visible notwithstanding its height, 
which would easily have concealed the smaller antelopes, or have 
favoured the escape, or approach, of an enemy. 
In one part of this days-journey, for the space of a mile and a 
half, the whole plain had in the preceding year, been set on fire, and 
every bush, as well as the dry grass, consumed or killed ; but this 
circumstance gave me a favorable opportunity for discovering the 
goodness of the soil, presumable from the rapid growth of the Tar- 
