250 
A LOSS. 
3—5 Aug. 
appeared to be very near, yet it was not till a quarter before ten 
that we arrived at the spot where it was proposed to take up our 
station. 
The country, from Snyman's to this place, has a gradual rise, 
which, in the distance of four-and-twenty miles, must amount to a 
very considerable increase of elevation. 
I now delivered to Mulder a package, containing the botanical 
specimens collected between Tulbagh and the Karro Pass, and for 
which Snyman had issued a requisition conformably to the govern- 
ment order, that they should be forwarded from one field-cornet to 
another, till they reached Cape Town. Mulder promised to take 
charge of them himself, together with a letter to my agents, as he 
intended setting out for the Cape in two or three days. 
With the view of ensuring their safe arrival, I wrote, by an 
opportunity which presented itself three weeks afterwards, to the 
Landdrost of Tulbagh, to apprise him of the circumstance ; yet 
neither these, nor the letter to ray agents, ever reached their desti- 
nation, a fact I was not informed of till my return to Cape Town. 
Every enquiry was then made, but without discovering them ; 
and, in the mean time, another landdrost was appointed. After I 
finally left the colony, the enquiry was continued officially by the 
Deputy Colonial Secretary, who obtained information that the package 
had been duly delivered to the Field-commandant, Pienaar, residing 
in the Bokkeveld j by whom they were said to have been left in 
Cape Town, at the house of a person named Zeyler, who denied its 
having ever been seen by him. Pienaar, on being further ques- 
tioned, declared that, as soon as he received it, he gave due notice at 
the Drostdy. Here the clue was lost, and the affair ended. I mention 
this circumstance, for the purpose of cautioning future travellers not 
to trust too much to such a mode of communication. This is the only 
loss my collection has sustained : it is not altogether inconsiderable, 
as it amounts to 585 specimens, and must occasion, in the numbers 
of the Geographical Catalogue, an hiatus that cannot now be filled up. 
Aih. At this station nothing new was observed : but, expecting 
the relays, I did not stray far from the waggons; otherwise it is 
