haunches, and keep both fportf.nen and dogs at bay. Its long, ftraight, fharp-pointed horns, ufed in defence by ftriking back with the head, make it dangerous to approach. Dogs are very frequently killed by it; and no peasant, after wounding the animal, will venture within its reach till it be dead, or its strength at least exhaufted. The flesh of the gems-bok is reckoned to be the best venifon that Africa produces. "The koodoo is fill larger than the gems-bok, being about the height of a common-fized afs, but much longer. Its ftrong fpiral horns are three feet in length, and feem to be very ill adapted for the convenience of the animal in the thick covert which it conftantly frequents. The hind part of the dufky moufe-coloured body has feveral clear white flipes, and different from most of the genus: on the neck is a fhort mane: the flesh is dry and without flavour." P. 104. HOTTENTOT FARMERS-CAPE "OUR first route lay directly to the fouthward towards the fea-coaft, through a country as fandy, arid, and fteril, as any part of the Great Defert, and equally ill fupplied with water. Two farm-houfes only were paffed on the firft day's journey, which was in the divifion called Camdeboo, a Hottentot word, fignifying green elevations, applying to the projecting buttreffes which fupport the Snowy Mountains, and which are mostly covered with verdure. The farmers here are entirely graziers; and for feeding their numeous herds each occupies a vast extent of country. Notwithstanding the miterable appearance of the plains, the bullocks were large and in excellent condition, and the theep were in tolerable good order; but the broad-tailed breed of the Cape feems to be of a very inferior kind to thofe of Siberia and oriental Tartary: they are longlegged, fmall in the body, remarkably thin in the fore-quarters and across the ribs: they have very little inteftine or net fat; the whole of this feems to be collected upon the hind part of the thigh and upon the tail: this is fhort, broad, flat, naked on the under fide, and weighs in general about five or fix pounds; fometimes it exceeds a dozen VOL. V.-No. XLV. pounds in weight: when melted it retains the confiftence of fat vegetable oils, and in this ftate it is frequently used as a substitute for butter, and for making foap by boiling it with the lie of the afhes of the falfola. The sheep of the Cape are marked with every fhade of colour; fome are black, fome brown, and others bay; but the greatest number are spotted; their necks are fmall and extended, and their ears long and pendulous: they weigh from fixty to feventy pounds each when taken from their pasture; but on their arrival at the Cape are reduced to about forty; and they are fold to the butchers, who collect them upon the fpot, for fix or eight fhillings a-piece. The price of a bullock is about twelve rixdollars, or forty-eight fhillings, and the average weight is about four hundred pounds. The graziers feldom kill an ox for their own confumption, unless it be to lay up in falt. Their general fare is mutton and goat's flesh. The African goat is the fineft of the fpecies I ever faw, and so wonderfully prolific, that it is confidered as the most profitable animal for home confumption that can be kept. They go twenty weeks with young, and feldom have lefs than two at a birth, very commonly three, and frequently four. The flesh, though much inferior to mutton, is thought quite good enough for the Hottentots in the fervice of the farmer; and the choice pieces, well foaked in the fat of fheeps' tails, are ferved upon his own table. "The wool of the fheep is little better than a strong frizzled hair, of which they make no kind of use except for ftuffing cushions or matraffes. They neither wash nor fhear their fheep, but fuffer the wool to drop off on its own accord, which it ufually does in the months of September and October. The skins are used only as clothing for the Hottentots, aprons for their children, bags for holding various articles, and other household purpofes. "A hog is a fpecies of animal fcarcely known in the district. No reafon but that of indolence can be affigned for the wint of it. To feed hogs there would be a neceffity of planting, and to this they feem to have a mortal antipathy. it is great exertion to throw a little corn into the ground for their, own bread. Many are not at the T trouble trouble even of doing this, but prefer to make a journey of feveral days to exchange their cattle for what corn they may ftand in need of. Potatoes they have a diflike to; and, according to their report, the Hottentots, whofe ftomachs are not very nice, refufe to eat them. It is curious enough that this poisonous root has been generally rejected at firft by moft nations. Strong prejudices exifted against it when firft it was introduced into England, where the privation of it now would be one of the greatest calamities that could befall the country. The fame reafons that prevent them from breeding hogs operate against their keeping poultry: thefe would require grain, and this labour. Of wild fowl, fuch as ducks and geefe, may be procured in moft parts of the country almoft any quantity, at the expenfe of a little powder and fhot. The larger kinds of game, however, are generally the objects of the Dutch farmers. They have a fufficient degree of penetration to calculate that the fame quantity of powder required to kill a duck will bring down an antelope. Of this deer, that species mentioned in a former chapter under the name of fpring-bok, is met with on the plains of Camdeboo in numbers that are almoft incredible. A thoroughbred sportsman will kill from twenty to thirty every time he goes out. This, however, the farmer does by a kind of poaching. He les concealed among the thickets near the fprings or pools of water, to which the whole herd, towards the clofe of the day, repair to quench their thirft, and by firing among them his enormous piece loaded with feveral bullets, he brings down three or four at a fhot. Oftriches we faw in great plenty, and often refreshed our whole company with the spoils of their nefts." P. 115, A REMARKABLE SALT-WATER LAKE. "ON the evening of the 17th of August 1797, we encamped on the verdant bank of a beautiful lake in the midst of a wood of fruitefcent plants. It was of an oval form, about three miles in circumference. On the weftern fide was a shelving bank of green ́turf, and round the other parts of the bafin the ground, rifing more abruptly, and to a greater height, was covered thickly with the fame kind of arbo reous and fucculent plants as had been obferved to grow moft commonly in the thickets of the adjoining country. The water was perfectly clear, but falt as brine. It was one of those faltwater lakes which abound in fouthern Africa, where they are called zout pans by the colonists. This it feems is the moft famous in the country, and is reforted to by the inhabitants from very diftant parts of the colony, for the purpose of procuring falt for their own confumption or for sale. It is fituated on a plain of confiderable elevation above the level of the fea. The greatest part of the bottom of the lake was covered with one continued body of falt like a fheet of ice, the crystals of which were fo united that it formed a folid mafs as hard as rock. The margin or fhore of the bafin was like the fandy beach of the fea-coaft, with fandftone and quartz pebbles thinly scattered over it, fome red, fome purple, and others gray. Beyond the narrow belt of fand the sheet of falt commenced with a thin porous crust, increafing in thickness and folidity as it advanced towards the middle of the lake. The falt that is taken out for ufe is generally broken up with picks where it is about four or five inches thick, which is at no great distance from the margin of the lake. The thicknefs in the middle is not known, a quantity of water generally remaining in that part. The dry fouth-eafterly winds of fummer, agitating the water of the lake, produce on the margin a fine, Ezht, powdery falt, like flakes of fnow. This is equally beautiful as the refined falt of England, and is much fought after by the women, who always commiflion their hufbands to bring home a quantity of fnowy falt for the table. "In endeavouring to account for the great accumulation of pure cry!tallized falt at the bottom of this lake, I fhould have conceived the following explanation fufficiently fatisfa&tcry, had not fome local circumstances feemed to militate firongly against it. The water of the fea on the coaft of Africa contains a very high proportion of falt. During the ftrong fouth-eaft winds of fummer, the fpray of the fea is carried to a very confiderable extent into the country in the flape of a thick mift. The powerful and combined effects of the dry wind and the fun carry on a rapid evaporation of the aqueous part of the mist, and of course a difengage-of-the fame kind behind the Snowy ment of the faline particles: theft, in Mountains, at the distance of two hun their fall, are received on the ground, dred miles from the fea-coaft, and on or on the foliage of the fhrubbery. an elevation that could not be less than When the rains commence they are five or fix thousand feet. The foil too again taken up in folution, and carried on all fides of the Zwart-kop's faltinto the falt-pan, towards which the pan was deep vegetable earth, in fome country on every fide inclines. The places red and in others black, refting quantity of falt thus feparated from upon a bed of clay, and without havthe fea, and borne upon the land, is ing the smallest veftige of falt in its. much more confiderable than at firft compofition. That falt in a foil was thought it might feem to be. At the inimical to, and destructive of, vegetadiftance of feveral miles from the fea- tion, was well known to the ancients, coaft, the air, in walking againft the In the metaphorical manner of the wind, is perceptibly faline on the lips. eaftern nations in treating things as It leaves a damp feel upon the clothes, well as ideas, it was ufually ordained, and gives to them alfo a faline tafte. after the deftruction of a city, to 'throw The oftrich feather I wore in my hat falt upon it, that nothing afterwards always hung in feparate threads when 'might grow there. The fhrubbery, near the fea-coaft in a fouth-east wind, ho ever, upon the banks of this fait and recovered itself immediately when lake, was beautifully luxuriant to the the wind fhifted. In fhort, the air be- very water's edge. comes fo much obfcured with the faline particles, that objects can only be diftinguished through it at very fhort diftances. Thefe winds prevailing for feven or eight months in the year, the mind can eafily perceive that, in the lapfe of ages, the quantity of falt carried upon the furrounding country, and wafted annually from thence into the common refervoir, might have accumulated to the present bulk. "Were this, however, actually the cafe, it would naturally follow that all the refervoirs of water in the proximity of this fea-coaft fhould contain, more or lefs, a portion of falt. Moft of them, in fact, do fo. Between the one in queftion and the fea, a distance of fix miles, there are three other falt lakes, two of which are on a plain, within a mile of the ftrand. None of thefe, however, depofit a body of falt except in very dry fummers, when the greateft part of the water is evaporated. One is called the Red Salt-pan, the cryftals of falt produced in it be ing always tinged of a ruby colour with iron. This lake is above, twice the fize of that above defcribed. All thefe fhould feem to favour the fuppofition of the falt being brought from the fea, were it not that clofe to the fide of the lake that produces the greateft quantity, is a ftagnant pool or valley, the water of which is perfectly freth. Another ftrong argument against the hypothefis above affumed is, the circumstance of our having difcovered, on a future journey, feveral falt-pans "A caufe, then, lefs remote remains to be adopted. Either falt-water fprings muft exift towards the centre of the lake, or the water that refts in it must come in contact with a ftratum of fal gem or rock-falt. This in fact feems to be the only fatisfactory way of accounting for the faltnefs of the fea; and if the fubterranean ftrata of this fubftance be among the number of those that are most commonly met with in the bowels of the earth, as has been fuppofed, the effects that exift may eafily be conceived to arise from it. The falt of Poland alone would be more than fufficient to falify the northern Atlantic. "We happened to vifit the lake at a very unfavourable feafon, when it was full of water. About the middle it was three feet deep, but fufficiently clear to perceive feveral veins of a dark ferruginous colour, interfecting in va rious directions the sheet of falt. Thefe were in all probability fprings whose action had impeded cryftallization, and brought up a quantity of ochra ceous matter. I caufed a hole four. feet in depth to be dug in the fand clofe to the edge of the water. The two firft feet were through fand like that of the fea-fhore, in which were mingled fmall fhining cryftals of falt. The third foot was confiderably harder and more compact, and came up in flakes that required fome force to break, and the laft foot was fo folid that the fpade would scarcely pierce it; and one fifth part of the mafs at leaft was pure falt in cryftals. The water now gufhed in perfectly clear, and as falt as brine. "Another object of natural history was difcovered about five miles northweft of the falt-pan. This was on the fide of a fmall hill, down which ran a ftreamlet of chalybeate water from a fpring fituated about midway of the afcent. Immediately below the spring the stream ran through a chafm of five or fix feet deep, in the midst of a mound of black boggy earth, which feemed to have been vomited out of the fpring. The mound was completely deftitute of any kind of vegetation, and fo light and tumefied, that it would fcarcely fupport the weight of a man. The water was clear, but the bottom of the channel was covered with a deep orange-coloured fediment of a gelatinous confiftence, void of fmell or taste. In every part of the bog was oozing out a fubftance, in fome places yellow, and in others green, which was auftere to the tafte like that of alum. When expofed to the flame of a candle it swelled out into a large hollow blifter, of which the external part had become a red friable clay, and the interior surfacewas coated over with a black glaffy pellicle. The smell given out was at first flightly fulphureous and afterwards bituminous. Great quantities of a dark, red, ochraceous earth were thrown out from the bog in small heaps like mole-hills. This, when taken be tween the fingers, became oily and adhefive, and the colour brightened to that of vermilion. Both the red, the green, and the yellow fubftances, when boiled in water, depofited a fmooth clayey fediment, unctuous to the feel, tasteless, and colourlefs. The water had imbibed a ftrong acid, and had diffolved part of the copper kettle in which it was boiled, as appeared by this metal being brought down on pieces of polished iron. The impregnated water changed the colour of blue paper. The want of chemical tefts prevented any farther experiments; but I imagine the fubftances were fulphuric acid in combination with clay forming alum, and the fame acid in union with iron, compofing green vitriel or copperas, which the mixture of bituminous or other heterogeneous matter had prevented from forming itfelf into regular crystals. "The water of the fpring was of the fame temperature as the furrounding atmosphere; but a farmer, who was with us, afferted pofitively, that fifteen years ago, when laft he was on the fpot, the water was thrown out warm to a confiderable degree. His affertion, however, was liable to fome doubt. Periodical hot fprings are phenomena in nature not frequently, if ever, met with. It is poffible that a portion of unfaturated fulphuric acid coming in its difengaged state in contact with the water might occafionally raise its temperature. The information of the peafantry on any subject, and in all countries, fhould be received with a degree of caution. Those of Africa, I have generally observed, are much difpofed to the marvellous. Be fore I afcended the hill in queftion, I was told that the fuffocating smell of fulphur conftantly given out was scarcely to be fupported, and that there was always a prodigious fmoke; both of which were palpable falfehoods." P. 122. THE LION AND THE BUFFALO "WE found encamped on the bor ders of the falt-water lake a farmer and his whole family, confifting of fons and daughters, and grandchildren; of oxen, cows, sheep, goats, and dogs. He was moving to a new habitation; and, in addition to his live-stock, carried with him his whole property in two waggons. He advifed us to make faft our oxen to the waggons, as two of his horfes had been devoured on the preceding night by lions. This powerful and treacherous animal is very common in the thickets about the salt-pan; treacherous, because it seldom makes an open attack, but, like the reft of the feline genus, lies in ambush till it can conveniently spring upon its prey. Happy for the peafantry, the Hottentots, and thofe animals that are the cbjects of its deftruction, were its noble and generous nature, that so oft has fired the imagination of poets, realized, and that his royal paw disdained to ftain itself in the blood of any fleeping creature. The lion, in fact, is one of the moft indolent of all the beafts of prey, and never gives himself the trous ble of a purfuit unlefs hard preffed with hunger. On our arrival at a farm farm-houfe on the banks of the Zwartkop's river, a lion had juft been fhot by a trap-gun; and fhortly after one of the Hottentots had brought down a large male buffalo. This animal (the bos caffer of the Syflema Natura) is the ftrongest and fierceft of the bovine genus. Nature feems to have defigned him as a model for producing extraordinary powers. The horns at the bafe are each twelve or thirteen inches broad, and are feparated only by a narrow channel, which fills up with age, and gives to the animal a forehead completely covered with a rugged mass of horn as hard as rock. From the bafe they diverge backwards, and are incurved towards the points, which are generally diftant from each other about three feet. About the height male, if taken very young, and fuffered to run among the cattle, would in all probability have intercourse with the cows; at least the other fpecies of the bovine tribe, when domefticated, have been found to mix together without any difficulty. Such a connexion would produce a change in the present breed of cattle in the colony, and without doubt for the better: a worse it could not well be than the common longlegged ox of the country." P. 129. (To be continued.) XXIV. Pennant's Journey from London to the fe of Wight. (Continued from p. 8o.) PENANCE OF HENRY II. BEYOND this chapel (of the Holy of a common-fized ox, the African BECKET'S SHRINE-PILGRIMAGES buffalo is at leaft twice its bulk. The fibres of its mufcles are like so many bundles of cords, and they are covered with a hide little inferior in ftrength and thickness to that of the rhinoceros. It is preferred by the peafantry to the fkin of all other animals for cutting into thongs to be used as traces and harnefs for their carts and waggons. The flesh is too coarse-grained to be good; yet the farmers generally falt it up as food for their Hottentots. It is curious enough that the teeth of this fpecies of buffalo should at all times be fo perfectly loofe in the fockets as to rattle and shake in its head. "The lion frequently meafures his frength with the buffalo, and always gains the advantage. This, however, he is faid to accomplish by ftratagem, being afraid to attack him on the open plain. He lies waiting in ambush till a convenient opportunity offers for fpringing upon the buffalo, and fixing his fangs in his throat; then striking his paw into the animal's face, he twifts round the head and pins him to the ground by the horns, holding him in that fituation till he expires from lofs of blood. Such a battle would furnish a grand fubject for the powers of a masterly pencil. "If the Dutch have been too indolent to domefticate the qua-cha and the zebra, it is lefs a matter of aftonishment that no attempts have been made on the fierce and powerful buffalo. Any other nation, poffefling the Cape for one hundred and fifty years, would certainly have effected it. A Trinity) is one of a circular form, called Becket's Crown: in it are five lofty narrow windows, and between fome of them are very rude paintings. Beneath, in a circular vault, was his place of interment, or rather the spot where the monks haftily buried his body, for fear it fhould be exposed to the fowls of the air, as the affatlins threatened. This vault must have been built long after, and his remains translated into the fhrine, where they remained till Cromwell, by order of the all-powerful Henry, directed his bones to be taken out, and confumed to afhes. It was not likely that he would pay any respect to fo virulent an op pofer of royal authority. "His fhrine ftood within the chapel of the Holy Trinity. The following defcription, taken from Stow, will show its immense wealth: "Saint Auftine's abbey at Canter bury was fuppreffed, and the shrine and goods taken to the king's treafury; as alfo the fhrine of Thomas 'Becket, in the priory of Chrift's 'Church, was likewife taken to the kufe. This thrine was builded about a man's height, all of stone, then upward of timber plaine, within the which was a cheft of yron, con teyning the bones of Thomas Becket, fcull and all, with the wounde of his death, and the peece cut out of his feul! layde in the fame wound.→ These bones (by commandement of 'the' |