320 TRAVELS IN 
and north-westerly winds, but is said to iiave better anchoring 
ground. There is a small spring of fresh Avater at the point 
of the hilly peninsula that runs along the coast from Saldanha 
bay. Tlie Berg river, though an immense mass of water, is 
so sanded up at the mouth, that boats can enter it only at 
high water. There still remain a few Hippopotami towards 
the lower part of this river, but they are very shy, and come 
up at nights only, to the place where the water begins to be 
fresh. The Dutch government, in order to preserve this ani- 
mal in the colony, imposed a fine of a thousand guilders on 
anv person that should put one of them to death. Game of 
every kind is very plentiful towards the mouth of the river. 
The tw^o large antelopes, the hartebeest, and the gemsbok, are 
occasional visitors of this part of the country. 
At the distance of hfteen miles from the mouth of the river, 
I crossed it in a boat, and floated over the waggon with a 
cask. The road on the opposite side was so heavy, and so 
great the extent of country uninhal)ited, on account of the 
deep sandy surface, and the scarcity of water, that it was 
dark before the waggon could arrive at the place where it was 
proposed to halt for the night. The driver, though an inha- 
bitant of the couHtry, lost his way over the uniform surface 
of sand and bushes, and we were three hours dragging back- 
wards and forwards before the house could be discovered, 
though close upon it the whole time. It was a wretched 
hovel of rushes, standing in the midst of a sandy plain. The 
night was very cold, and there was neither food nor shelter 
for the horses, nor water for the cattle. The shifting of the 
i^and-drifts had choaked up the briny spring, and the inha- 
