330 TRAVELS IN 
The inanity of their minds and the indolent habit of 
their bodies are not even surmounted by self-interest. Their 
ignorance cannot be a matter of wonder, but we often find in 
Europe unlettered men possessed of great talents and inge- 
nuity. No printing-press has yet found its way to the Cape 
of Good Hope, except a small one for cards or hand-bills. 
They contrive, indeed, to publish a sort of almanac, but that 
of the current year has somewhat suffered in its reputation, 
by having stated an eclipse of the moon to fall on the day 
preceding the full, and to be invisible, when, unluckily for 
the almanac-maker, it happened at its proper time, visible, 
and nearly totah 
The descent to the eastern plain was several hundred feet 
less than had been the ascent of the opposite face of the moun- 
tain. The country was now rough and stony, bounded by 
a high ridge of wall-sided rock, from five hundred to a thou- 
sand feet in height. The summit was a broad belt, of that 
kind of surface formerly spoken of under the name of Karroo. 
A partial elevation still higher than this surface, is called the 
Bokkeveld's mountain, and resembles, in its appearance and 
produce, the mountains of Sneuwberg. In ascending the 
Bokkeveld, the south-east monsoon threatened a change. 
The wind having blown strong from that quarter for three 
days, suddenly changed to the northward, and the contention 
produced incessant peals of thunder the whole day, heavy 
rain, and the largest hailstones I ever saw. Some of them 
measured six-tenths of an inch in diameter ; and a peasant 
who lived on the highest part, asserted that they fell near his 
house as large as pullets' eggs. On the weather clearing up 
at night, the temperature of the air had decreased from 78° at 
noon, to 40° of Fahrenheit's scale. 
