The population on these mountains is very small, and consists chiefly of the herds at the cattle posts, with an isolated village here and there. These herds are generally youths and boys, whose duty it is to care for the cattle and sheep, sent up from the different villages in the "plains" for the sake of the rich pasture to be found in the valleys and on the table-lands of these mountains. Hither every autumn are brought all the animals that can be spared from the lower and more barren lands, to winter and escape the semi-starvation, and often death, which await their less fortunate fellows, whose fate it is to remain at the homesteads below. It is quite a picturesque scene to see one of these cavalcades start. The herd boys pack up enough meal, salt, mealies and Kaffir corn to last for their own use through the winter, their only other food being the flesh of any beast or bird they can manage to kill with their sticks aided by their dogs, or the carcase of any of the flock which dies or comes to an untimely end. When the provisions are ready, they are slung on the backs of several pack oxen, the younger boys taking charge of them, a boy to each ox, which they hold by a leather or grass rope converted into reins by being passed through the poor animal's nose and both ends tied together, making a loop long enough to pass over his horns on to his neck. All the guiding is done by hitting the horns. The older herds then take up their musical instruments, which they begin to play, leading the way, followed by all the flock, and accompanied by several dogs. The pack oxen and boys bring up the rear. In this way they journey to the particular spot chosen by their particular chief, and here they remain till summer comes, when they return to their homes in the same manner as they set out. They never hurry; the animals graze as they go, finding abundant pasture by the way. As I said before, the country is almost destitute of trees now, though it evidently was well wooded at one time. The soil is rich and fertile, the crops sown by the Basuto in the most happy-go-lucky style yielding splendid returns as a rule, and, where European care and skill have been expended, richly repaying the owner. The mountains in the western part of the country, which stand up in solitary state, like great giants guarding their land, are for the most part flat topped, with splendid pasture on the table-land. They are wonderfully alike in size and shape, fairly easy of ascent near the bottom, steep and rocky, often precipitous near the top. A few of these mountains are conical in shape, and one or two are most grotesque. Scattered all over the face of the country are numbers of enormous rocks of every conceivable shape, sometimes lying in solitary state, at other places grouped in twos and threes side by side, and yet again lying one on the top of the other, often the larger one on top. This at a distance presents an appearance somewhat like a badly-shaped mushroom.