1811 
TWO QUAKKAS SHOT. — GROOTE FONTEIN. 
453 
it might appear as little injured as possible ; otherwise their mode of 
going to work would soon have made it useless for this purpose. 
One of the animals was a full-grown male ; the other, which 
was much smaller, was a young female. They were in all respects 
alike, excepting that the abdominal, longitudinal stripe of the female 
was the darker, and its light stripes whiter, and dark stripes fainter, 
of a browner color, and not so well defined as in the male. This 
latter had much the form of a small, strong, and well-made poney. 
The skin of this, and the meat of both, were loaded upon the two 
waggons. 
The rocks in this part, are of the same species of primitive lime- 
rock as that which had been noticed in the neighbourhood of Klaar- 
water. As we approached Groote Fontein (Great Fountain)^ we passed 
many trees, which we observed more numerous and crowded the 
nearer we advanced to the spring. They consisted chiefly of the 
Cape Acacias, with many Hookthorn trees twelve or fourteen feet 
high. The Rhus tridactyle also was remarkable by its delicate 
foliage. * 
The sun was still an hour and a half above the horizon, when 
we reached the foot of the pass over these mountains, and unyoked 
at Groote Fontein^ near the spring, in a pleasant grove, in the midst 
of which the water is situated. A large solitary tree of Kameel-doorn f 
(Camel-thorn, or the tree on which, generally, the Camelopardalis 
browses), the first I had seen of the species, was standing here. 
Close under the mountain, three springs of good water issue 
from the earth, and, uniting, form a rill, which at this time lost itself, 
or was dried up, after running a course of three or four hundred 
* In this day's journey, six new insects of the Grylline tribe were found in the plain ; 
and eight new plants were added to the herbarium. 
Aptosimum, species 2 Makernia 
Sida Aizoon. Catal. Geogr. 1790. Species 
Phyllanthus notabilis, lignosa sesquipedalis. 
f Acacia Giraffce. Of this remarkable tree a more particular account will be found 
in tlie second volume. 
