VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA. 39 
yoke of the first pair of oxen, being fastened, in passing, to 
the middle rings of each yoke. The bullocks, by pushing witii 
their shoulders, seem to draw with ease. The Hottentot driver 
has a whip, the stick of which is a strong bamboo, twelve and 
more feet long, and the lash, n plaited thong of equal or greater 
length. With this, to European grasp, unwieldy instrument, he 
not only cracks very loud, but hits any one of his bullocks witli 
the greatest surety. But the chief engine of his government is his 
tongue, and he continually calls to his cattle by their names, di- 
recting them to the right or left by the addition of the excla- 
mations of hott and haar, occasionally enforcing obedience to his 
commands by a lash, or by whisking or cracking his whip over 
their heads. A boy leads the foremost oxen by a thong fastened 
about their horns, and they seem to follow him willingly. We 
were accompanied a short way by our friends, Mr. Hancke and 
Mr. Daniel Disandt. The weather was clear, and the view of the 
mountains delightful. 
The English have made good roads in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood of Capetown, and to Simon's Bay; but we soon left 
them, and dragged through deep sand, almost the whole way to 
Groenekloof. No trees, and but few shrubs, adorn the waste, 
but we noticed many pretty species of heath, and some elegant 
flowers, unknown to us. The most common plant is the so-called 
Hottentot fig. From beneath the sand is protruded, most of 
the way to the drift or fording-place of the Salt river, a porous iron- 
stone of singular character, appearing here and there perforated, 
like a honeycomb, or an umber of nuclei cleaving together, the 
cavities filled with ochre. This iron-stone is found almost in every 
part of the colony, both in the Cape district, and beyond the 
great ridges of mountains, in a variet}' of forms, in pebbles, large 
lumps, scattered about among the sand, or in veins. About sun- 
set, we reached the large salt pans near the Riet Valley, so called 
from the quantity of reed-rushes growing in it. The people in 
the adjoining farm very civilly sent to invite us to tiie house ; but 
