108 
BETHELSDORP. 
the upper grinding stone ; and a little girl attended the 
sack which caught the meal as it fell. At one end of 
the house they were making soap of sheep's fat, 
and the ashes of a tree that grows in the neighbour- 
hood, which they say is preferable to pot-ash. At the 
other end of the apartment, two female taylors were 
sewing men's apparel. In the next house we entered, 
several men were employed, in cutting down the skin of 
the buffalo to be furniture for waggons and harness for 
oxen. In a third house I examined many large mats 
which they had just finished ; these are used by the 
purchasers instead of carpets, and for beds. We then 
went forward to the receptacle of the dead, which is 
hedged round with aloes : the graves are distinguished 
by stones raised upon them. Thermometer 70. 
Cloudy. Lightning at night- 
3rd. In the morning we went in a waggon to 
view a salt lake in the vicinity of Bethelsdorp, which 
is several miles in circumference. A considerable 
part of the bed was dry, and white as snow, being 
covered with salt, but so thinly scattered as not to be 
gathered without a mixture of sand. It has exactly 
the appearance of an extensive field of snow, and 
looked grand from the meridian sun shining almost 
directly down upon it: the grass also, numerous 
bushes, and elegant plants with which it was sur- 
rounded, added greatly to the beauty of the scenery. 
On the margin of the lake we picked up many pieces 
of trees, completely petrified, or encrusted with stone. 
