SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
301 
been employed in the dairy, and more particularly on the pains 
that have been taken in working the butter well, to free it from 
the milky particles, which, if fuffered to remain, very foon com- 
municate a ftrong rancid tafte that is highly ofFenfive. That 
which comes from the Snowy Mountains is accounted the beft ; 
but, to fay the truth, very little deferves the appellation of good. 
Under the Dutch Government it was ufually fold from fourpence 
to fixpence a pound, but, of late years, it was feldom to be pur- 
chafed undeir a Ihilling a pound. 
Soap and Candles. 
The firft of thefe articles is manufactured by almoft every far- 
mer in the country, and, in fome of the diftrifts, furnifhes a con- 
fiderable part of their furplus revenue, which is appropriated to 
the purchafe of clothing and other necelTaries at their annual 
vifit to Cape Town, The un£tuous part is chiefly derived from 
the fat of fheeps' tails, and the potafh or barilla is the lixiviated 
afhcs procured from a fpecies of Salfola or fait wort that grows 
abundantly on thofe parts of the Karroo^ or deferts, that are 
interfedted by periodical ftreams of water. The plant is known 
in the colony by the Hottentot name of Canna. With this 
alkaline lye and the fat of fheep, boiled together over a flow (ire 
for four or five days, they make a very excellent foap, which ge- 
nerally bears the fame price as fait butter. Being mofl:ly brought 
from the diftant difl;rid of Graaf Reynet at the fame time with 
the butter, they rofe and fell together according to the quantity 
in the market, and the demand there might happen to be for 
them» 
