VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA. ' 311 
note produces the reverse of the cheering effect of the spirited song 
of our European larks. 
The sugar-bush grows plentifully in the wilderness, and in in- 
creasing- quantity. It has a magnificent flower, and the wood and 
roots are good fuel. 
l6th. Letters from Capetown, mentioning a brig, the Brilliant, 
Captain Young, as likely soon to sail for England, I set out for the 
Cape, with a sensible Hottentot for my groom, about eight o'clock. 
I contrived to converse with him during the journey in Dutch, and 
found considerable entertainment in the remarks he made on va- 
rious subjects. 
Many tortoises crawl about the waste. They are not large, ge- 
nerally from six to eight inches long. A small species called Pat- 
looper, is from four to five inches. In Avarm weather, inclining to 
rain, they are often seen crawling from one bush to another across 
the road. Observing to my Hottentot, that they were the best 
protected of all the innoxious animals of this howling wilderness, 
he was of a different opinion. The jackals, he replied, watch for 
the young tortoises, crack their tender shell as easily as a nut, and 
devour them: again, the crows attack the larger ones, as they are 
passing over a place, unprotected by bushes, turn them over, 
and by inserting their long bills into the open parts of the shell, 
sieze their feet and heads, and most dexterously contrive, by 
degrees, to pick out the whole animal. Of that most venomous 
reptile, the puffader, he gave me several strange accounts, hardly to 
be credited. It is said, that the production of the young brood is 
the death of tlje dam, as they begin their murderous career, by 
gnaAving their way out of her body. I should not mention this 
circumstance, if I had not heard it asserted by men of credit. 
We baited at a farm, belonging to a Mr. Munnick, Avho was 
absent. I walked about the premises, and found some curious 
varieties of ferruginous sand-stone, in scattered fragments. Near 
the Riet valley, we met a Groenekloof Hottentot, Inimanuel, re- 
turning with his waggon from Capetown. He very civilly alighted,. 
