Third Journey (MS 107/2)
9th January 1779
transcription
[9th January 1779]
9.
term 66 97 - 78
regen mist van nagt en dese morgen w wind opklarend tegen negen uren. arriveerde na 8 uren met de ossewagen om het end der bergen aan oliphants rivier die nu ondiep en omtrent 50 treden hier breed was spanden by van zyl uit aan de z: zyde der rivier
de bergen eindigen hier ten enemaal, en alleen lage ruggens schieten na de camies bergen daar de menschen als in roggeveld om de sneeuw na de caro trekken. dus omtrent van die hoogte dese caro strekt van de binnen hoek der maskamma tot aan Camies gebergte. n b dog de cari bergen leggen 5 a 6 mylen over de oliphants riv:
[in margin:] passeerde veel ros sand op de uitschietende rug by de ati plaats aan doorn rivier.)
translation
[9th January 1779]
9
Themometer: 66 - 97 - 78 degrees
Mist and rain last night and this morning west wind; clearing up about nine o’clock.
After travelling for eight hours with the oxwagons we arrived at the end of the mountains at the Oliphants River, which was now shallow and about fifty paces wide here and outpanned at Van Zyl’s on the south side of the river. The mountains come completely to an end here, and only large ridges go up towards the Kamiesbergen, from where the people move to the Karoo on account of the snow, just as they do from the Roggeveld, and thus from about that height. This Karoo stretches from the inside corner of the Maskamma to the Kamiesbergen
N.B. Yet the Karee mountains lie five or six miles across the Oliphants River. On the projecting ridge at the Aties farm beside the Doorn River we passed over much reddish sand.