[1] It will doubtless be remembered that, in a gale of wind off the British coast, the Dalhousie was thrown on her beam-ends, and foundered in half an hour afterward, when, with a single exception, every soul on board perished. Out of the several vessels in which I have at different times been a passenger, the Dalhousie is the third that has perished shortly after my leaving her!
[2] The term “cart,” in this sense, implies a large, roomy, and covered vehicle, capable of holding four or six individuals, and from five hundred to one thousand pounds of baggage. It is usually drawn by six or eight mules or horses.
[3] When a bush-tick is found attached to any part of the body of a man, the simplest and the most effectual way of getting rid of it, without any disagreeable result, is to anoint the place to which the insect has fixed itself with pipe oil. In cases of brute animals, I have found tar to answer the purpose exceedingly well.
[4] I have seen the white Egyptian vulture feed upon it! This is, I believe, with one more exception, the only instance where this class of birds are known to partake of vegetable food.
[5] The southern limit of Great Namaqua-land is, at the present moment, the Orange River. To the north it is bounded by Damara-land, or by about the twenty-second degree of south latitude.
[6] To prevent confusion, when speaking hereafter of these people, I shall simply call them Damaras, in contradistinction to the Hill-Damaras, who are a totally different race of natives.
[7] A similar notion prevails with regard to that most curious little animal, the lemming (lemmus norvegicus, Worm.), on whose mysterious appearance and disappearance so many hypotheses have been unsatisfactorily expended. See Lloyd’s “Scandinavian Adventures,” vol. ii., chap. v.
[8] His hunting dress on these occasions consisted simply of a thick, coarse blue shirt or blouse, secured by a belt round his waist, containing his balls, caps, wadding, &c.
[9] Most animals, when shot or otherwise killed, fall on their sides; but the rhinoceros is often an exception to this rule: at least such is my experience. In nine cases out of ten, of all those I have killed during my wanderings in Africa—and they amount to upward of one hundred—I found them on their knees, with the fore parts of their ponderous heads resting on the ground.
[10] The “shambok” (a Dutch term) consists of a strip of the stoutest part of the hide of the rhinoceros or the hippopotamus. After being stretched on the ground, and when it has acquired a certain stiffness, the strip is subjected to a severe hammering, for the double purpose of condensing it and giving it a rounded shape. It is then reduced to the desired size by means of a knife or plane; and, lastly, a piece of sand-paper, or glass, if at hand, is employed to give it the finishing smoothness and polish. The “shambok” is exceedingly tough and pliable, will inflict the most severe wounds and bruises, and will last for years. The price of one of these “whips,” in the colony, varies from eighteen pence to as much as nine or ten shillings.