SOUTHERN AFRICA. . 335 
commercial point of view, the divifion of Olifant's river is the 
moft favorable fituation for encouraging their culture, and for 
procuring their products in the moft confiderable quantities. 
None of the larger kind of game, except the Koodoo, are now 
to be met with near Olifant's river, though the animal, whofe 
name it bears, in all probability, once abounded there. The 
river otter is plentiful, as are alfb two or three fpecles of wild- 
cat, one of which appeared to be that defcribed under the name 
of Caracal. The body was of a deep chefnut brown, and the 
points of the ears tipped with brufhes of long black hairs ; a 
fecond fpecies, or rather variety, was of a cinereous bJue color ; 
and a third, clouded black and white. Here alfo is abundance 
of that fpecies of viverra called the Ratel. Its choice food is 
honey, and nature has endowed it with a hide fo very thick, 
that the fting of a bee is unable to penetrate through it. No 
animal is perhaps more tenacious of life than the ratel. A dog 
with great difficulty can v\^orry it to death j and it is a fpecies 
of amufement for the farmers to run knives through different 
parts of the body, without being able, for a length of time, to 
deprive it of exiftence. 
Turning off to the fouthward from the 01ifant*s river, and 
paffing round a high detached mountain called the Kamnaafiebcrg^ 
we croffed a range of hills, and defcended into Lange' Kloof, or 
the Long Pafs. This is a narrow valley, in few places exceed- 
ing a mile in width, hemmed in between a high unbroken 
chain of mountains on the fouth, and a parallel range of green 
hills on the north, ftretching nearly due eaft and weft, without 
any 
V 
