1811. 
ARRIVAL AT THE KARRO PASS. 
207 
from the dangers of the journey, and for a safe return ; and seemed 
to regret so soon losing their English acquaintance. 
At an hour before noon, I finally quitted their friendly cottage. 
After travelling four hours over an uncultivated country, without 
seeing a dwelling of any kind, we arrived at the southern entrance of 
the Karro Footi (or Karro Pass) *, where we unyoked the oxen, and 
took up our station under the shelter of two large bushy trees of 
Karree-hout (Karree-wood) "f, near a small stream of water. 
On the banks of this rivulet grow some large trees of the same 
kind, forming, by the peculiar softness of their foliage, very pic- 
turesque ornaments to the landscape. The soil was clothed with 
low bushes of Atri2jlex albicans and Galenia Africana. The latter 
produces a remarkable effect on the legs of cattle that graze amongst 
it, by staining them of a green color. All our oxen, but more par- 
ticularly the white ones, exhibited this singular appearance. 
A range of mountains, of moderate height, separates the great 
Karro from the inhabited parts of the colony, lying to the south- 
ward. Another range, of much greater elevation, bounds it on the 
northern side ; and in this the Pass of the Roggeveld-mountain is 
situated. That division lying nearest to the Roggeveld, is distin- 
guished as the Roggeveld Karro, and is partly inhabited, during four 
or five months in the winter season, by the boors of that country, 
who then remove, with their families and cattle, to certain tempo- 
rary huts, called Leg-plaats (which may be translated Cattle-place). 
From these they remove back again to the Roggeveld at the end of 
October. In like manner, the other division is denominated the 
Bokkeveld Karro. The Karro Pass conducts the traveller, by a 
winding defile, through the range of Witteberg, or the Wittebergen 
(White Mountains), and ushers him into the Great Karro. The 
strata of the mountains here, on each side, are inclined in opposite 
positions, and curiously curved in undulating lines. The word Karro 
belongs to the Hottentot language, and signifies dry, or arid. 
* This scene is represented by the engraving at the end of the chapter, 
f Wius viminale a species which I now observed to be dioicous. 
