-6o ^TRAVELS IN 
On the west side of the Kardouw lies the division of the 
Four-and-twenty Rivers, extending from thence to the banks 
of the Berg river. This part of the country to the sea-shore, 
including Zwartland, consists of a flat extended plain, very 
fertile in corn, grass, and fruits, and being well watered, is 
more populous than most parts of the colony. With a pro- 
per degree of labor and management in the culture of the 
land, by plantations and inclosures for shelter, Vvarmth, and 
moisture, that part of the colony alone, which lies within the 
great range of mountains, would be fully sufficient to supply 
with all the necessaries of life the town and garrison of the 
Cape, and all the shipping that will probably ever frequent 
its ports. 
Crossing the Berg river, I entered Zwartland, where, in 
consequence of a shower of rain, the inhabitants were busily 
employed in ploughing the ground, which the long drought 
this year had hitherto prevented them from entering. In this 
division there is no scarcity of water in springs or wells, but 
it is universally, and so strongly, impregnated with salt, as 
not only to be disagreeable, but almost impossible to be 
taken by those who have not been long accustomed to it. 
Ijy such it is preferred to the purest water; this being ac- 
counted insipid and tasteless. An old man in the Bokke- 
veld, who, from his infancy till a few years past, had lived in 
Zwartland, never missed an opportunity of sending thither a 
few bottles to be filled with the briny water for his own par- 
ticular use ; the pure stream of the mountain, as he asserted, 
mot being able to quench his thirst. Similar instances of 
;babit, or of fancy, appear in ancient history. Some of the 
