I 
SOUTHERN AFRICA. 63 
tentots, against whom they make regular expeditions in the 
same manner as from the Sneuwberg. 
20. The Khamies Berg is a cluster of mountains situated in 
the middle of the country that formerly was inhabited b}'^ the 
Namaaqua Hottentots, at the distance of five days' journey 
north-west from the Hantam, over a dry sandv desert almost 
destitute of water. This cluster of mountains being the best, 
and, indeed, almost the only habitable part of the Namaaqua 
country, has been taken possession of by the wandering pea- 
santry, who, to the advantage of a good grazing countrj^ had 
the additional inducement of settling there from the easy means 
of increasing their stock of sheep from the herds of the native 
Hottentots, who, indeed, are now so reduced and scattered 
among the Dutch farms as scarcel}'^ to be considered as a di- 
stinct tribe of people. 
The copper mountains commence where the Khamiesberg 
ends, the whole surface of which is said to be covered with 
malachite, or the carbonate of copper, and cupreous pyrites. 
But the ores of these mountains, however abundant, and how- 
ever rich, are of no sreat value on account of the total want 
of every kind of fue l to smelt them, as well as of their very 
great distance from the Cape, and from there being neither 
bay nor river where they could be put on board of coasting 
vessels. In the Khamiesberg is also found, in large blocks, 
that beautiful species of stone to which mineralogists have 
given the iiame of Prehnite. 
21. Upper, Middle, and Little Roggevelds, or rye-grass coun- 
tries, are the summit of a long extended Table Mountain, 
