SOUTHERN AFRICA. 329 
been harassed and famished for two months in travelling over 
a barren desert, but cured at Algoa Bay, and brought dovt^n 
in small coasting vessels to the Cape. Salted mutton, and 
mutton hams, might, however, be, and are indeed to a cer- 
tain degree, prepared at the Cape, but not to that extent of 
which they are capable. 
It is remarkable that the Dutch, being so fond of fat^ 
should not pay more attention to increase the breed of hogs. 
Except a few, that are shamefully suffered to wallow about 
the shores of Table Bay, where, indeed, they are so far use- 
ful as to pick up dead fish and butchers' offals, that are scat- 
tered along the strand, the hog is an animal that is scarcely 
known as food in tlie colony. Yet, from the vast quantities 
of fruit, the productive crops of barley, of peas, beans, and 
other vegetables, they might be reared at a small expence ; 
whereas, from the manner in which they are at present fed 
in Cape Town, no one thinks of eating pork. 
Salt, in the greatest abundance, is spontaneously produced 
within a few miles of Cape Town, by the evaporation of the 
water in the salt lakes that abound along the west coast of 
the colony. Two kinds of fish, the Hottentot and the Snook, 
are spht open, salted, and dried in the sun in large quan- 
tities, principally for the use of the slaves who are employed 
in agriculture, to correct the bilious effects of bullocks' livers 
and other offals that constitute a great part of their food. 
They are eaten also by the inhabitants of the town, when 
boisterous weather prevents the fishing-boats from going out ; 
for a Dutchman seldom makes a meal without lish. Small 
VOL. II. u u 
