1811. 
YOKE-RIVER HEIGHTS. — TYS KRAAL. 
229 
master; and, being longer legged, and rather more lightly made, 
than the ox of England, travels with greater ease and expedition ; 
walking three or four miles in the hour, trotting five, and gallopping, 
on an emergency, seven or eight. 
Juk-riviers Hoogte (Yoke-river Heights) is a considerable emi- 
nence ; and in descending it, we were, for the first time, since leaving 
Tulbagh, obliged to skid the wheels. After this we continued our 
journey by night, and at about eight o'clock halted under Gouds- 
bloems Hoogte (Marygold Heights) * at an ' outspan-place' called 
Tys-kraal, by a dry river-course abounding in acacias and karree- 
trees. Under their spreading branches we kindled a large fire, which 
the coldness of the night now rendered very necessary. Coffee was 
immediately prepared, and our Hottentot cooks having soon broiled 
the mutton carhonaadtjes (chops or steaks), it was not long before 
supper was finished, and all the party were asleep ; but the recording 
of the observations, and the disposing of the collections, of the day, 
kept me fully employed till midnight. 
At Hangklip we quitted what may properly be called the Karro 
plains, and continued travelling between hills of inconsiderable size 
and elevation, all the strata of which were perfectly horizontal, till 
we came to Juk river, where the country becomes much more hilly. 
20///. By an observation of the sun's meridional altitude, I as- 
certained the latitude of Tys-kraal, to be 32° 46' 52''. f Just as the 
observation was completed, I had the misfortune, in taking up the 
artificial horizon, to spill half the quicksilver on the ground. The 
quantity which remained not being enough to form a reflecting 
surface of the required size, and knowing that no money could re- 
place the loss, without returning to Cape Town, I could not but 
* So called from a profusion of flowers, of the class Compositor, observed here at a 
particular season of the year. The term Goudshloem, like too many of the colonial 
names, is applied gratuitously to various plants, fancied to have a resemblance to the Mary- 
gold. Different species of Ardotis have generally been pointed out to me for it, and some- 
times a kind of Cotida. 
\ 'iOth July 1811, at Tys Kraal under Goudsbloem's Hoogte, observed meridional 
altitude of the Sun's centre, 36° 24' 39". 
