254 
TRAVELS IN 
did not get a sight of it. It cannot fail to be remarked by 
every traveller in Southern Africa, who may have attended to 
the accounts that are given of the northern parts of the same 
continent, that there is a strong and striking analogy between 
them. Egypt and the colony of the Cape lie under the 
^ame parallels of latitude : they have the same kind of cli- 
mate, the same soil, the same saline waters : they both abound 
in natron ; and the same plants and the same animals are 
common to both. Egypt, without the Nile, would be a 
desart waste, producing only a few saline and succulent 
plants like those of the Great Karroo, where rain full as sel- 
dom falls as in the former country ; and the sandy soil of the 
Cape, with the assistance of water, is as fertile as that of 
Egypt possibly can be. The rains in the Abyssinian moun- 
tains generally begin in May, and cause the inundations of 
the Nile to take place in June, continuing to the month of 
September. The rains in the Great mountains beyond the 
Kaffers and Tambookies, along the feet of which the Orange 
river runs, collecting their tributary streams in its passage, 
commence in November, and cause the inundations to take 
place, towards the Namaqua country, in December, corre- 
sponding thus exactly with the former, both countries being 
nearly at the same distance from the equator, but on contrary 
«ides. The same singular peculiarity has been observed in 
the conformation of the Egyptian women that pervades the 
whole of the Hottentot nation. That extraordinary animal 
the camelopardalis is said to be an inhabitant of Ethiopia, 
nearer to the Line than Egypt; and it is first met with in 
Southern Africa, beyond the Orange river, which is also nearer 
to the Line than any part of the colony of the Cape. Many 
