VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA. 331 
dislodge the poor birds, and sieze upon the nest. Tiie lateness 
of the season prevented my taking any animals alive. My friends 
had provided for me several tortoises, canieleons, fresh water 
turtles, (a small turtle about four inches square), and even a 
young baboon. 
25th. In the afternoon the whole family, accompanied by Mr. 
Melville, visited the Oliphants' Klippen, (Elephants' stones), near 
the Klaberfalg, Mr. Duckett's farm. They are detached masses 
of granite, erect, or in a leaning posture, situated in a valley, as 
if they had been thrown from an adjoining hill, or rather, left 
there by the washing away of tlie ground, when the valley was 
formed. Every emineiice in this neighbourhood also, is crowned 
with a collection of stones, forming a kind of rock among the 
bushes. Many beautiful flowers were now beginning to peep out, 
as the spring was fast advancing. 
26th. J\Ir. Melville's waggon conveyed all my heavy baggage 
to Capetown. In the afternoon, Brother Bonatz accompanied 
me on a visit to that part of the settlement, called Moy Mack's 
Revier, which lies to the right of the Cape road, on entering the 
farm. A small stream passes through it, crosses the road, and, 
skirting the little wood, helps to irrigate the grounds in that part 
of the village under the hill. 
The cottages are of the meaner kind: the gardens slope down 
towards the brook: the soil is a dry sand, and will require much 
culture, before it is turned into a fruitful mould, Peter, a 
Dambra Hottentot, has the best garden, and is an active man. 
The people seemed much pleased with our visit. We then went 
to the upper row of cottages, to the left of the road, and there 
saw a woman upwards of an hundred years old. Sister Schmitt, 
who had joined us, accosted her, but she appeared quite stupid. 
Her children and grand-children live with her. She had been 
an inhabitant for six years, but seemed perfectly indifferent about 
religion. Of late, however, she sometimes asked a person, in 
