138 
THE MOUNTAIN-HORSE. 
19 April, 
often so much swollen by the rains, as to be, for a day or two, quite 
impassable. 
The unfavorable state of the weather prevented our halting for 
a minute to take a look around us : the rain poured down in such 
torrents, as frequently to shut out our view entirely. To a tra- 
veller, nothing is more vexatious, both to his patience and to his 
curiosity, than to find himself in the midst of beautiful scenery, 
without being permitted to contemplate and admire it ; or even to 
catch a glimpse of it but through streams of rain. We rode nearly 
three quarters of an hour before we cleared the mountains, and 
entered upon the open road. The course, and frequent falls of 
the river, prove that the valley of Roodezand lies at a considerably 
higher level than the country westward of these mountains. 
In such weather, we could not enjoy our ride through the 
division of Drakenstein, which is accounted the most cultivated 
and beautiful part of the colony. It lay on our left, and occupies 
the fertile flat country, stretching along the foot of the mountains, 
from Roodezands Kloof to the village of the Paarl. 
We halted for a few minutes at the door of a farm-house, to 
procure a cup of wine, when its owner, Piet Van der Merwe, wished 
to persuade us to remain under shelter, offering, at the same time, 
to have a fire lighted in one of the rooms, that we might dry our 
clothes ; but, as it was not possible for the rain to make us more 
wet than we were, we resolved to proceed. We passed Paardeberg 
(Horse Mountain), which was situated at a little distance on our 
right, and Wagenmaker's Valley on the left. The former was so 
named from the Wilde Paard (Wild Horse), which, at that time, 
inhabited it ; for, at the present day, not one is to be found there. 
This beautiful animal has been hitherto confounded by natu- 
ralists with the Zebra *. When these were first described by modern 
* " Nous ne savons pas comment Buffon a pu dire que le zebra male etait raye de 
" jaune et de noir, et la femelle de blanc et de noir." — Cuvier; ' Menagerie du Museum 
National,' article Zebre : which, according to the figure and description there given, is the 
Equus montanus. 
