SOUTHERN AFRICA. 253 
Almoft all the people of the Snowy mountains, who were 
advanced in years, were fubjedt to gravelly complaints, occa- 
fioned probably by the badnefs of the water, which at one fea- 
fon of the year is a muddy mixture of fnow and earth, and at 
the other ftrongly impregnated with fait. And not to the 
human fpecies alone are complaints of this nature here con- 
fined, but almoft all animals, whether domefticated or in a ftate 
of nature, are found to have more or lefs of ftones or maffes of 
fand formed in the bladder or ftomach. Large oval ftones are 
very commonly found in the ftomach of the fpringbok, and 
numbers of a fmaller fize in the eggs of oftriches, as has before 
been remarked. 
On the twenty- fifth we proceeded about twenty miles to the 
northward, over a flat furface of country, confifting chiefly of 
meadow-ground, well watered by numerous fprings and fmall 
rills, but deftitute of every appearance of a bufti or fhrub. On 
every fide were grazing a multitude of wild animals, as gnoos, 
and quachas, and hartebeefts, and fpringboks, in fuch large 
troops as in no part of the country had before been obferved. 
The place of our encampment was called Gordon s Fonteyn^ and 
near it ftood the laft Chriftian habitation, towards this quarter, 
in the colony. Being fituated fo near to the Bosjefmans, no 
fewer than four families were living together, as a better fecu- 
lity to each other againft the attacks of thefe people. 
Having underftood that beyond this place it would no 
longer be fafe to proceed without an armed force, the inhabit- 
ants of the Sneuwberg and its feveral divifions had been fum- 
moned 
