Note 1. “Kloof,” the Boer’s designation of a valley of the ravine order.
Note 2. The “kop” is a cliff-like promontory overhanging a valley or plain, nearly synonymous with the American “bluff.” It is, doubtless, the Dutch radix of our word cape.
Note 3. There are no less than seven distinct species of vultures inhabiting South Africa; while the species of eagles are still more numerous.
Note 4. “Kalahari,” the name of the great South African desert, or Karoo, which extends north from the Orange River, and west of the Transvaal, for hundreds of miles. Its borders, and some parts of its interior, are inhabited by Bushmen and Bechuanas.
Chapter Sixteen.
A Carnival of the Carnivora.
Needless to say that Van Dorn’s last words, pointing to the urgency of immediate departure, were convincing to his associate baases, had they stood in need of conviction. But neither did; they, as he, being but too glad to get away from a scene where they had suffered so much loss, to say nothing of the misery. The spectacle now under their eyes was itself sufficiently disagreeable, seeming a very charnel-house. Scores of carcasses lay in and around the camp; and, as the hot sun continued to burn down upon them, the effluvia was every moment becoming more offensive, and would soon be unbearable. True, they could be buried as those first dying had been. But, for days past, an understanding prevailed that the encampment was to be changed, time and place alone remaining undetermined. The former had now come, and the latter been also resolved upon; no new ground, but one familiar to them—in short, that they had so lately and hurriedly abandoned.