SOUTHERN AFRICA. 255 
of the year are entirely dry. Some of the gats^ or holes, of 
the Sea-Cow river were five or fix miles in length, and deep 
enough to have floated a line-of-battle fhip. They formerly 
contained vaft numbers of the animal from whence the river 
has borrowed its name ; but the proximity of the colony, and 
the great convenience of hunting them in thefe pools, have 
been the means of deftroying them almoft entirely. Now and 
then a hippopotamus is ftill taken in fome of the holes of the 
river. 
The following day we palTed over plains that fwarmed with 
game. Purfuing the gnoos and different antelopes, we killed a 
prodigious large tyger-wolf, fuch as has been defcribed, two 
quachas, and a couple of fnakes of the fame fpecies, one five, 
the other near fix feet long ; their color was entirely a golden 
yellow ; they were very fierce, and made feveral attempts to 
fpring at the horfes. The peafantry confidered them as very 
venemous, and gave them the name of cobra capella. 
Twenty miles farther to the northward brought us to that 
part of the river where Governor Van Plettenberg ended his 
travels towards this quarter ; and, in commemoration of the 
event, he caufed a ftone or haaken to be there erected, which 
he alfo intended fliould ferve as a point in the line of demarca- 
tion between the colony and the country of the Bosjefmans. 
Thefe people, however, had thrown down and broken in pieces 
the monument ; but the place retained the name of the Edel 
Heers baaken ; and the large hole of the river, upon the bank of 
which It ftood, bore the name of Plettenberg. 
The 
