332 TRAVELS IN 
The north-weft winds of winter have a moift and cold feel 
even in Cape Town, where, though thermometer feldom de- 
fcends below 40°, and then only about an hour before fun-rife, 
all the Englifh inhabitants were glad to keep conftant fires dur- 
ing the months of July, Auguft, and September. Even in Oc- 
tober it is not unufual to obferve the fummits of the mountains 
to the eaftward of the Cape iRhmus buried in fnow. 
But as I have taken particular notice of the remarkable 
changes of temperature in different feafons and fituations in the 
former volume, I muft beg leave to refer the reader to it for 
further information on this fubjedt. 
The great fcarcity of water in fummer, the reafon of which 
I have endeavoured to account for in the fecond chapter, is 
much more unfavourable to an extended cultivation than either 
the foil or climate. The torrents of rain that defcend for about 
four months in the year, deluging the whole country, difappear 
fuddenly, for the reafons therein ftated, leaving the deep funken 
beds of the rivers nearly dry, or fo far exhaufted as to be ren- 
dered incapable of fupplying the purpofes of irrigation. The 
periodical rivulets, and the ftreams that iflue from the mountain 
fprings, are either abforbed or evaporated before they arrive at 
any great diftance from their fources. In the whole compafs of 
this extenfive colony, one can fcarcely fay that there is a fingle 
navigable river. 
The two principal rivers, on the weffern coaft, are the Berg 
or Mountain River, which takes its rife in the mountains that 
I enclofe 
