04 
TRAVELS IN 
properly so called. It occupies about ten miles on every side 
of the village. On the north and east it is terminated by the 
Sneiiwherg or Snowy mountains, and on the south and west is 
inclosed by the division of Camdeboo. It contains only 
twenty-six families, twelve of whom inhabit the village : the 
rest are scattered over a wild barren country almost destitute of 
tree or shrub, and very little better than the Karroo desert. 
The Sunday river, in its passage from the Snowy mountains, 
"winds round the small plain on which the Drosdy is placed, 
and furnishes it with a copious supply of water, without which 
it would produce nothing. The whole extent of this plain is not 
more than two square miles, and it is surrounded by mountains 
two thousand feet in height, from whose steep sides project, 
like so many lines of raasoniy, a great number of sand-stone 
strata ; so that the heat of summer, increased by the confined 
situation and the reflection of the sun's rays from the rocky 
sides of these mountains, is intensely great ; whilst the cold of 
winter, from their great height, and the proximity of the Snowy 
mountains, from whence the northerly winds rush with great 
violence through the kloof that admits the Sunday river, is 
almost intolerable ; not merely on account of the decreased 
temperature, but from the total i mpossibility of stirring abroad 
during the continuance of these winds, which in whirling 
eddies carry round the plain a constant eloud of red earth 
aud sand. 
The village of Graaff Reynet is in latitude 32° IT south, 
longitude 26° east, and the distance from Cape Town about 
500 miles. It consists of an assemblage of mud huts placed 
at some distance from each other, in two lines, forming a kind 
