1811. 
AT THE REED RIVER. 
265 
exhibiting an inimitable delicacy and gradation of keeping. The 
hills ill the back-ground, of a reddish barren hue mellowed by the 
rich light of the setting sun, contrasted, and rendered more beautiful, 
the singular pale line formed by the tops of the rushes ; whose tall, 
slender, straight form served to exemplify the assertion that, in a 
landscape, no shape or uniformity is unpleasing when shadowed and 
tinted by Nature. The observant artist may discover that the 
beauty of his picture, depends far less on the choice of subject than 
on the mode of managing it. If those painters who, having 
neither taste nor genius, would spend a part of their time in the 
observation, and confine themselves to the plain copying, of what is 
before them, their works would possess a certain share of merit ; 
while on the contrary, by attempting to soar above the imitation of 
Nature, their pictures are entitled only to that of being the pro- 
duction of their own imagination. 
\2tJi. At this place my Hottentots went out every day hunting, 
but without success : their object was that beautiful animal the 
Mountain-horse or Dauw. * Here I procured, for the fast time, the 
Das OY Dasje. -j - This is of a brown color, and has much the appear- 
ance of a Uabbit : it is found in rocky places, where it takes shelter 
in the crevices. Its flesh is eatable ; but the animal is exceedingly 
wary and difficult to get. The JVilde-gans ( \\ ild-goose) | shot here, is 
a large well-tasted bird, and was always found in pairs, although very 
shy, and flying exceedingly well for so heavy a bird : it may often 
be discovered by its short quacking noise. At this place we met 
with, for the first time, the Namaqua Parttidge, a very small species 
of Grous. § 
* Equus monta7ius : the description of which has been given at page 138 of this 
volume. 
f Hyrax Capensis : the early colonists frequently gave the names of European animals 
to those of the Cape, without much discrimination, and on no better grounds than a very 
vague resemblance. Thus it is, that the present bears the name of Das or Badger. 
I Anas cana. Sys. Nat. ed. Gmel. 
§ Tetrao Namaqmna. Sys. Nat. ed. Gmel. — Pterocles. Temminck, Manuel d'Orni- 
thologie, 2nde ed. 
M M 
