35^ TRAVELS IN 
from the former by a narrow chasm or opening. These 
heights are so called from a species of rye-grass that is found 
very plentifully in most of the hollows, and on which the 
cattle, during the summer season, in a great degree subsist. 
In some places the Roggeveld presents to the next lower 
terrace, which is the Bokkeveld and Karroo plains, perpendi- 
cular faces of stone from two to four thousand feet in height. 
Yet from this great elevation, on the eastern side, the descent 
is scarcely perceptible. The Fish river, whose course is 
easterly, and which rises on the very summit of the mountain, 
scarcely has any current, but is a series of deep holes con- 
nected by periodical streamlets. The great inequality of the 
summit of the Roggeveld gives it the appearance of a chain 
of mountains rising out of the general surface of a mountain. 
Of these the Kam, or Cup mountain, js the highest. Accord- 
ing to the information of a neighbouring peasant, who as- 
sisted Colonel Gordon in determining its altitude, it is fifteen 
hundred feet higher than the Table mountain, or five thousand 
feet above the Karroo plains. For several months in the 
year the Roggeveld is entirely under snow ; the inhabitants 
are then obliged to descend upon the Karroo with all their 
cattle, wheret in temporary dwellings of rushes or straw, 
they remain till the spring. This division of Stellenbosch is 
considered to produce the best breed of horses in the M'hole- 
colony. 
The country to the eastward of the Roggeveld is inhabited 
by different hordes of Bosjesmans. One of these, called the 
Koranas, dwelling on the right bank of the Orange river, 
directly east from the Roggeveld, is represented as a very 
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