264 
TRAVELS IN 
our horses, it would have been necessary to return to the 
northward and to cross the Zuure-berg. To the eastward, no 
passage over them has yet been discovered in any of the ex- 
peditions that, with different views, have been made through 
Kaffer-land. The country therefore, behind the Bambos- 
berg, at the feet of which the Orange river flows, may be 
considered as very Httle known, and on that account it was a 
subject of no small regret to some of the party that no direct 
passage could be made over it. It would have been im- 
prudent also to continue oiir route to the eastward, as a horde 
of Bosjesmans, commanded by one Lynx, said to consist of 
five hundred people, had {)osted themselves near a point of 
the Bambos-berg. We were obliged, tlierefore, to turn off to 
the southward, directly through the Tarka. 
In one of the mountains which terminate this division to the 
eastward, we discovered a cavern full of the drawings of differ- 
ent animals generally of the larger kind, such as elephants, 
rhinosceroses, hippopotami, and, among the rest, one of the 
caraelopardalis. The representation of this animal proved 
the assertion of the Bosjesman to be true, that the people who 
made these drawings were from hordes dwelhngon the north- 
ern side of the Orange river; because, on the southern side, 
the camelopardalis has never yet been met with. It is an ani- 
mal entirely unknown to the inhabitants of Graaff Reynet. 
The division of the Tarka is named after a river that, rising 
in the Bambos-berg, flows directly through it, and afterwards 
forms a confluence with the Fish river. It is a well-covered 
country ; and, when inhabited, was considered as one of the 
8 
