Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in South Africa: Sport and Travel in South AfricaAnderson, Andrew A.
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Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in South Africa: Sport and Travel in South Africa
Anderson, Andrew A.
Africa, Southern -- Description and travel; Anderson, Andrew A. -- Travel -- Africa, Southern
To go through my daily routine from place to place, the same duty daily,
would become too tedious. We therefore, after leaving this place,
visited various localities. My Bushmen knew that water could be found
at Hoodedoon, and the dry river where we managed to capsize the waggon.
We reached Reitfontain and Wahlberg, my old station, at a pan situated
at the north end of that mountain range; I had left five weeks back, and
encamped once more for a rest. I call this my station in 22 degrees 10
minutes South latitude, 22 degrees 12 minutes East longitude. The whole
of the country is high, 3880; at my pan the mountain registers 6880
above sea-level. After a stay of ten days I left for Lake N'gami.
The importance of this desert cannot be over-estimated in connection
with our interior trade. Whatever nation secures it, secures all the
trade to the Zambese, which would be an immense loss to England and the
Cape Colony. It is capable of great improvement, and under a proper
government will become a most valuable field for emigration.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
GREAT NAMAQUALAND.
This country occupies the western shore of the South Atlantic, from the
Orange river, which is the northern boundary of the Cape Colony, to
Walfish Bay, a distance of 420 miles. The southern boundary follows up
the Orange river for ninety miles, where the Great Fish river falls into
it from the north. The native name of this river is the Garip. The
breadth at its mouth is nearly four miles; the sand in its bed and the
many shoals and sand-banks prevent its being navigable. Higher up there
are long stretches of smooth water for miles, intersected by rapids and
rocks,--some of them very beautiful, passing down between broad belts of
rich vegetation, with splendid timber of many varieties: the willow,
with its drooping branches kissing the water, adds greatly to the beauty
of the scene.
It was on this river, some miles above, that I spent many delightful
months, with my canoe, sailing on its placid waters,--some of the most
pleasant of my life. Many beautiful stones, not in small quantities,
but in cart-loads, can be shovelled up wherever the water has left them
on the shore. The upper portion of the river I have already described.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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