340 TRAVELS IN 
miles, nor its height, are sufficient to account for the early ap- 
proach of winter, and the deep snows that fall there. Perhaps- 
as this point is the termination of the periodical winds, and 
the commencement of those almost invariable breezes that 
blow between the tropics, and extend five or six degrees be- 
yond them, called the trade winds, the frequent squalls and 
commotion in the air occasioned at the point of meeting, may 
have a tendency to lower the temperature. To the northward 
of the Khamies berg, on the sandy plains of the Namaaqua 
country, it is said that rain never falls. Whatsoever clouds 
may be borne from the sea, or formed in the atmosphere, are 
immediately attracted to this cluster of mountains. 
In that part of the Namaaqua country, lying between the 
Khamies and the Groote, or Orange river, water is rarely met 
with, except in the periodical streams that flow from the 
mountain under beds of sand, in which the natives, when 
such existed, used to dig deep wells, and cover them over to 
prevent evaporation. These plains are now desolate and un- 
inhabited. All those numerous tribes of Namaaquas, once 
possessed of vast herds of cattle, are, in the course of less than 
a century, dwindled away to four hordes, which are not very 
numerous, and in a great measure are subservient to the 
Dutch peasantry, who dwell among tlieni. The latter, who 
have seized upon the choicest part of their country, allow 
them to erect their huts in the neighbourhood of their farms, 
on condition of their furnishing a certain number of people to 
protect their cattle against the attacks of Bosjesmans, or wild 
beasts of prey. A dozen 3^ears more, and probably a shorter 
period, will see the remains of the Namaaqua nation in a 
1 
