16 Transactions of the Boyal Society of South Africa. 
us the Stapelia was greatly valued by the Bushmen when thirsty, as 
it would kill great thirst. The expedition shot a lot of big game; he has 
seen crocodiles," lakavanes, haarte-beest, blaau-wilde beest, elands, giraffes, 
zebras, tigers, lions, leopards, wolves, jackals, wild-dogs, and all kinds of 
wild buck and small game ; he certainly can describe all the spoors f most 
minutely, and could track them exceptionally well in his younger days ; 
this quaUty seems to be inherent in the Bushman people, no doubt 
through long generations of them being engaged in tracking the spoors 
of game and wild animals. They are also very good herds for all kinds of 
stock; our old boy will often scold animals roundly, as if he fully expected 
that they would fully understand his tirades, but always handles them 
gently, excepting when he is very angry, when a gleam of the latent 
fierceness of the Bushman will kindle like a flame. 
He knows a large variety of fish ; and seems to know a great deal 
about snakes, lizards, scorpions, and poisonous creatures generally. 
He remembers the terrible drought when the waters of the Orange 
Eiver ceased to flow, the waters in the deep pools soon became stagnant, 
as hundreds of Boer families had taken refuge on the banks, and stood in 
wagons and tents, their thousands of small stock, cattle, and horses 
helping to pollute the pools. 
Then he wandered to Riet Eiver and worked for "Ou Bass" Zwartz, 
whose wife eventually died from cancer; old Gert believed to this day 
that as soon as she died all the bees left, and they could not get any 
swarms to settle there again. (No doubt a Bushman superstition firmly 
engraved upon his memory.) 
Finally he had to drive some oxen to Jacobsdaal ; he was mounted on 
a fine black horse, when, crossing a drift, he saw a Griqua woman washing 
clothes. Some of the foremost oxen sniffed the clothes and walked in 
their direction, where they were drying on some bushes. The woman 
stood watching, with her hands resting on her enormous hips ; it was a 
critical moment — and old Gert recognised this when he saw how fat and 
light yellow in colour she was. He sjambokked his horse out of the water 
and turned the oxen off in the nick of time. Then he greeted the woman. 
Well, after some conversation, he inquired where she lived, and upon 
hearing that she was a widow and worked at Mr. John Fraser's, the store- 
keeper, he decided to seek employment there, as he felt tired of working 
for " Ou Baas " Zwartz. He took the Griqua woman for a wife ; he thought 
her remarkably fine-looking when she waddled like a duck. Her daughter 
was Mrs. Fraser's nursemaid. They were in service in this family for 
many years, and when Mr. Fraser started farming near Hope Town they 
* A corruption of the word I'Iguane, which applies here to the Nile Monitor and 
another species. — L.P. 
t Footprints. — L.P. 
