lOO 
TRAVELS IN 
weather indicated a fevere froft every night at the diftance 
of a verj few miles on the defert. 
The miftrefs of the manfion, at the age of fixty, and the 
mother of fixteen children, was a tall, ftralght, well-looking, 
and adtive woman ; and all the people, who made their appear- 
ance from the Black Mountains, were of a ftature much exceed- 
ing the common fize of man. The peafantry of the colony 
have always been reprefented as a gigantic race of men. Liv- 
ing nearly in a ftate of nature, with the advantage of having 
at all times within their reach a fupply of food, procured with- 
out bodily exertion or the fatigue of labor, they fometimes 
attain the greateft poffible fize to which the fpecies feems 
capable of arriving. 
From this place may be feen to the northward, acrofs the 
Karroo plains, the chain of mountains which forms the high- 
eft ftep or terrace that has yet been afcended by European 
travellers. The defert rifes towards them in a fine fwell that 
is clearly perceptible to the eye. An attempt to eftimate the 
height of the Nieuwveld Mountains^ by having merely pafied 
over the country, can be confidered as little better than a guefs. 
I fhould fuppofe, however, from attending to the general flope 
of the country to the northward, as well as the fudden eleva- 
tions from one terrace to another, that the fummit of this fcreen 
of mountains cannot be lefs than ten thoufand feet above the 
level of the fea. Snow falls upon them to the depth of five or 
fix feet, and continues to bury them for as many months. 
The inferior range of Zwarteberg was at this time, for a con- 
fiderable 
