1811. 
DESERTED KRAAL.— GUM ARABIC. 
429 
chanced to follow a narrow |3ath which led me to a Bushman 
Kraal : but not an inhabitant was there. It was, in fact, deserted ; 
nothing remaining but a few huts, made of branches, covered with 
grass and reeds. It was inaccessible, except by two or three small 
close paths which had been cut through the thicket ; and even these 
I found obstructed by large limbs of trees, purposely placed there to 
prevent the intrusion of hippopotami, or other large beasts ; or, at 
least, to give the inhabitants, at night, timely notice of their approach, 
by the noise the animals would make in trampling them down, or 
removing them out of their way. The kraal was surrounded 
by extensive woods of the largest Acacias I had hitherto met 
with. 
On the branches of these Acacias, which have so m-eat a 
resemblance to the true Acacia of the ancients, or the tree whicli 
yields the Gum-Arabic, as to have been once considered the same 
species, I frequently saw large lumps of very good and clear gum. 
Wherever they had been wounded by the hatchets of the natives, 
there, most commonly, the gum exuded; and by some similar 
operation, it is probable that the trees might, without destroying 
them, be made to produce annually a large crop. And if a compu- 
tation could be made of the quantity that might be obtained from 
those trees only, whicli line the banks of the Gariep and its 
branches, amounting to a line oi' wood (reckoning both sides) of" 
more than two thousand miles, one would feel inclined to suppose 
that it might be worth while to teach and encourage the natives to 
collect it. This they certainly would be ready to do, if they 
knew that tobacco could always be obtained in exchange. But if, 
to the Acacias of this river, are added the myriads which crowd 
almost every river in extra-tropical Southern Africa, or even between 
the Cape and the Gariep only, one may feel quite satisfied that 
there are trees enough to supply a quantity of this drug, more than 
equal to the whole consumption of Great Britain. Of the produc- 
tiveness of the Acacia Capensis, as compared with that of the 
Acacia vera, I have no information that enables me to give an 
