It Is Getting Quite Chilly Here Already; COLD
Night And Morning; And I Shall Be Glad To Descend Off This Plateau
Into The Warmer Regions Of Worcester, &C. I Have Just Bought EIGHT
Splendid Ostrich Feathers For 1l. Of My Old Togthandler Friend.
In
England they would cost from eighteen to twenty-five shillings
each.
I have got a reebok and a klipspringer skin for you; the
latter makes a saddle-cloth which defies sore backs; they were
given me by Klein and a farmer at Palmiet River. The flesh was
poor stuff, white and papery. The Hottentots can't 'bray' the
skins as the Caffres do; and the woman who did mine asked me for a
trifle beforehand, and got so drunk that she let them dry halfway
in the process, consequently they don't look so well.
Worcester, Sunday, March 2d.
Oh, such a journey! Such country! Pearly mountains and deep blue
sky, and an impassable pass to walk down, and baboons, and
secretary birds, and tortoises! I couldn't sleep for it all last
night, tired as I was with the unutterably bad road, or track
rather.
Well, we left Caledon on Friday, at ten o'clock, and though the
weather had been cold and unpleasant for two days, I had a lovely
morning, and away we went to Villiersdorp (pronounced Filjeesdorp).
It is quite a tiny village, in a sort of Rasselas-looking valley.
We were four hours on the road, winding along the side of a
mountain ridge, which we finally crossed, with a splendid view of
the sea at the far-distant end of a huge amphitheatre formed by two
ridges of mountains, and on the other side the descent into
Filjeesdorp.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 100 of 141
Words from 26749 to 27032
of 37925
