August.] 
BUSHMEN NEAR IT. 
287 
26th. We filled, in a few minutes, two skin- 
bags with the salt of the lake ; part of the salt 
had a lilac hue in the lump, but when pounded 
down was white as snow. We left the lake at 
half past nine a.m. Our road lay amidst innu- 
merable ant-hills, composed of pale red earth, 
from one and a half to three feet high, and from 
five to ten feet in circumference at the base, 
chiefly of a conical shape, and pushing their 
heads above both grass and bushes. In the sun- 
shine they had rather a singular appearance. 
We travelled S.E., having a picturesque chain of 
low hills on our left, the extreme point of which 
we passed at one p. m. 
The poor Bushmen on the salt-lake district 
possessed many sheep and goats till about eight 
years ago, when a plundering party of CafFres 
came into their country, carried off the whole, and 
killed some of the Bushmen. The Caffres next 
proceeded to the Matchappees, and captured 
many of their cattle. At length they ventured 
to attack the Griquas, who handled them so se- 
verely that they fled, and have never troubled 
them since. The Bushmen farther to the east- 
ward, on the Alexander and Yellow Rivers, have 
lately been discovered to be in a much more 
comfortable state than any of the Bushmen to the 
westward of that river, possessing comparatively 
many cattle ; some kraals have as many as five 
