AFRICA. 105 
bltaiits with water equally good as that of the 
Cape — a very extraordinary phenomenon in 
an ifland fo fmall, and almoft on a level with 
the fea. 
I have feen here a great many black fer- 
pents four feet in length, but they are not 
venomous : abundance of partridges, and a 
ftill greater number of quails, are likewife 
found in this ifland. I have fometimes killed 
from fifty to fixty of thefe birds in a morning. 
' I muft not here omit to mention an obferr 
vation which concerns natural hiftory. The 
quails of the ifle of Roben and thofe of the • 
Cape are abfolutely the fame fpecies, without 
any difference which might render my affer- 
tion even doubtful ; yet the quails of the Cape 
are birds of pafTage. This fad is well known : 
and though the diftance from the ifle of Roben 
to the continent be only two leagues, it is alfo 
certain that the quails there never emigrate. 
They are always equally abundant and found 
in every feafon. If I add likewife that the 
quails of Europe are exadly of the fame fpecies 
as thefe, mufl; we not conclude that the former 
do not pafs the fea, as has been hitherto pre- 
taided I Sopie travellers afl^ert as a truth, 
that 
