File:Travels and adventures in southern Africa (1827) (14598340270).jpg

Identifier: travelsadventure00thom (find matches)
Title: Travels and adventures in southern Africa
Year: 1827 (1820s)
Authors: Thompson, George
Subjects:
Publisher: (London H. Colburn)
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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t, nofarther disturbance. 15.—Continued our journey at daybreak. The views we occasionallycaught of the river from the rising grounds on its banks, were very mag-niQcent. The rich foliage of the willows along the margin, and the thickets,or rather forests of mimosa-trees, spreading for at least a mile on eitherside, formed a striking contrast to the parched-up plains and hUls out ofthe influence of its periodical overflowings. The sultry north-west wind continued to blow strong in our faces; andwhiilwinds were often observed sweeping up the course of the river, car- • The koodoo is one of the most remarkable of the Soutli .\fricnn antelopes, but now toowell known to all lovers of natural history to require minute description. The horns ofthe male are sojietinies upwards of fnur feet in length ; yet he is a lover of the thornybrakes on the river banks: the female is destitute of horus. The figures of this animal,and the springbok, in the accompanying plate, are accurately engraved.
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5 ,^^ g 1 BAND OF KORANNA HUNTSMEN. 261 rying the loose sand and withered wrack of the banks along with greatviolence. We continued looking out very anxiously for the natives, andfelt not a little surprised that we had yet met with none. We saw manyof the pitfalls dug hy them for ensnaring the larger game, and sometimeswith difficulty avoided falling into them. The thorny mazes of the banks,and the rugged nature of the adjacent country, alike impeded us. All ourhorses still exhibited symptoms of great exhaustion, and some of them hadbecome quite lame by wounding their feet in the stony paths. We pro-ceeded, therefore, but slowly. We had now advanced about fifty miles down the river without havingmet a single native ; and knowing that its banks are far more densely inha-bited than any other part of the Bushman or Koranna country, and observ-ing also, many of their dwellings recently deserted, we could not account forthe apparent abandonment of this favourite region by its inhabitants.

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