382 
TRAVELS IN 
tended branches, promifed a plentiful ftream. It happened, 
however, to be perfedlly dry. The experiment of digging 
was made in the bed of the river, and at five feet under the 
pebbly and chryftallized fand, the fragments apparently of de- 
compofed granite, was a ftream of clear frefh water ; and from 
various experiments afterwards made in the fandy beds of the 
rivers of the Namaaqua country, I am inclined to think, that 
fubterranean ftreams of water pafs under moft of them in this 
part of Africa. 
Near this river was fituated a Kraal or horde of Namaaqua 
Hottentots. Their flocks of fheep, brought in towards the 
evening, might perhaps amount to three thoufand. They pof- 
feffed alfo a few cattle, and a herd of fmall handfome goats, that 
were fpotted like the leopard.. The fheep were totally different 
from the breed ufually met with in the colony. Inftead of the 
fhort, broad, and curling tails of thefe, thofe of the Namaaquas 
were long and round like the common Englifh fheep. The 
rams had fmall ftraight horns. The covering was fhort, ftraight, 
fhining hair in general, fpotted bay and white. Thefe, in all 
probability, were the indigenous fheep of the country, the broad- 
tailed ones having been brought into the colony from the north- 
ward. The affertlon of Monfieur Vaillant is without any kind 
of foundation, when he fays, that broad-tailed fheep tranfplanted 
into the Namaaqua country lofe that part of their character, 
and obtain long round tails. There are Dutch peafants who 
have lived in this country thirty years, yet have not a long- 
tailed fheep in their whole flock. I could have no converfation 
with thefe people through the means of my Hottentots, the 
language 
