io8 
TRAVELS IN 
profecute a coiirfe of experiments on a fubjed of fo much im- 
portance and curiofity. 
Our cattle being well refrefhed on the meadows of De Beer 
Valley, we advanced about twenty miles, and encamped for the 
night on the banks of Hottentot's river, in the narrow deep 
channel of which were only a few ftagnant pools of muddy 
water. Here we were met by fome of the inhabitants of Cam- 
deboo, who, being apprifed of the approach of the landroft, 
had come a two days' journey, and brought with them feveral 
teams of large fat oxen to haften his arrival at the Drofdy, 
where he was informed the orderly and well-difpofed part of 
the diftrid: were anxioufly expeding him. 
On the twenty-eighth we pitched our tents at the Poor/, fo 
called from a narrow pafTage through a range of hills that 
branch out from the mountains of Camdeboo and run acrofs 
the defert. The plains were here a little better covered with 
fhrubbery, and abounded with duikers and fteen-boks, whole 
herds of fpring-boks, and qua-chas and oftriches. 
A heap of ftones, piled upon the bank of a rivulet, was 
pointed out to me as the grave of a Hottentot ; and on enquir- 
ing from our people of this nation if the deceafed had been 
fome chief, they informed me that no diftindion was conveyed 
after death j and that the fize of the heap depended entirely 
upon the trouble that the furviving friends chofe to give them- 
felves. The intention, it feemed, of the pile was very different 
from that of the monuments of a fimilar kind that anciently 
were 
