r94 TRAVELS IN 
the different ochres. The animals represented were zebras, 
qua-chas, gemsboks, spring-boks, reeboks, elands, baboons, 
and ostriches, all of which, except the gemsbok, are to be 
found upon the very spot. Several crosses, circles, points, 
and lines, were placed in a long row, as if intended to ex- 
press some meaning ; but whether designed to convey any 
particular ideas, or accidentally marked, I cannot pretend to 
say. In the coarse of our journeys, I had frequently heard 
the peasantry mention the drawings in the mountains behind 
the Sneuwberg made by the Bosjesmans ; but I took it for 
granted they were caricatures only, similar to such as we 
sometimes see on the doors and walls of uninhabited build- 
ings, the works of idle boys ; and it was no disagreeable dis- 
appointment to find them very much the reverse. Some of 
the drawings were recognized to be of recent execution ; but 
many of them were remembered to exist from the first settle- 
ment of this part of the colony. 
A part of the upper surface of the cavern was covered whh 
a thick coating of a black substance, that externally had the 
appearance of pitch. In consistence, tenacity, and color, of a 
brownish black, it resembled Spanish hquorice. The smell was 
slightly bituminous, but faint, and rather offensive. It flamed 
weakly in the candle, and gave out a thin brownish fluid, but 
no smell while burning ; the residuum was a black coaly sub- 
stance, about two-thirds of the original bulk. The patch ad- 
hering to the rock was covered with myriads of very minute 
flies. In reaching up to it, in order to cut off a specimen 
with my knife, the people called out to me to desist, assuring 
me that if the smallest particle got into the eye the sight of it 
