286 
ON GIVING NAMES TO PLACES. 
4, 5 Sept. 
SO called on account of several low hills in the surrounding dis- 
tance. * 
Why places in the following part of our route, not frequented 
by the colonists, should bear Dutch names, requires to be explained ; 
and, for that purpose, it is only necessary to repeat that the usual 
language of the Klaarwater Hottentots, is Dutch, and that these 
names are frequently the mere translation of the aboriginal names, 
which latter they never make use of when conversing in the Dutch 
language. I have, therefore, been too often compelled to use the 
translation when I ought to have given the original. It is certainly 
bad taste to substitute, in any country, a modern or a foreign name, 
for one by which a place has been for ages known to its native inha- 
bitants. I cannot consider myself as falling under this remark when, 
not having been able to learn the true name, I have been under the 
necessity of giving a temporary one to some of my stations, in order 
to note afterwards, more precisely, the spot where particular objects 
of natural history were found. 
Having, in the course of the day, observed the foot-marks of 
lions, we took care to guard against a surprise from those powerful 
beasts during the night, by placing the waggons in a circle, within 
* Between Sack river and Kopjes Foiitein, sixteen species of plants were added to 
mv catalogue : — 
Gorteria diffusa. Tb. Hermannia 
Grielum simiatum. Licht. Planta to- Sisymbrhan 
mentosa prostrata pulchra floribus Dais? 
citrinis. Folia pinnatim dissecta. Lachenalia 
Pliarnaceuvi salsoloides. B. Cat. Geog. Nemesia 
1508. Species valde singularis. Lichtenstei7iia 
Planta depressa ramosa foliosa gla- Lycium 
bra. Folia carnosa teretia glauca. Calendula. Lin. 
Umbella pauciflora supra-axillaris Chrysocoma 
longe pedunculata. Ajptosimum, B. &c. 
In the following part of the journey, so many new objects were continually met with, 
that it becomes impossible, without swelling too much the bulk of the present volume, to 
notice even a small proportion of them. A few of the most remarkable, or such as ap- 
peared more interesting, will be occasionally described more particularly ; and, in order 
to give an idea of the botany of a region new to naturalists, the genera of the rest will 
frequently be added. 
