^ SOUTHERN AFRICA. 279 
nier months; but the south-east winds, which blow with such 
strength at the Cape, are not felt in the interior parts of the 
country. At the Cape there happen less thunder and light- 
ning than perhaps in any other part of the world, the island 
of St. Helena excepted, where they are scarcely known to the 
inhabitants. 
Passing. over a rough mountainous country, we halted on the 
thirtieth near the source of the Bavian's, or Baboon's river. 
It rises out of a chain of mountains in the KafFer country, and 
joins the Great Fish river. Tall spreading mimosas were here 
scattered over the face of the country, and, with their new 
foliage of lively green, displayed a very beautiful appearance ; 
they were also studded with clusters of golden flowers, not 
more pleasing to the eye than agreeable to the smell. Thou- 
sands of bees were busily employed in collecting from these 
flowers their winters store. This part of the country seemed 
to abound in honey ; it was hanging in large clusters from al- 
most every rock, and this was the season of its greatest plenty 
and perfection. The Hottentots have a common observation 
among them, that when the Doom boom blossoms the honey is 
fat. 
Quick as the Hottentots are in observing the bees, as they 
fly to their nests, they have still a much better guide on 
which they invariably rely. This is a small brownish bird, 
nothing remarkable in its appearance, of the cuckoo genus, to 
which naturalists have given the specific name of Indicator^ 
from the circumstance of its pointing out and discovering?, by 
