the leaves of the tobacco plant which grow nearest to it, that those leaves are always rejected as unfit for use; and it is natural to suppose, that the fruit of the vine hanging very near to, or even resting upon, the ground, will also receive the prevailing flavour exhaling from the soil. It is indolence alone that has hitherto prevented the colonists from leading their vines along standards, in which case they would not only improve the quality of the grape, but would also receive a double quantity from the same ground. The raisins of the Cape are of so good a quality, and can be afforded at so reasonable a rate, that, in all probability, they will hereafter form an article of considerable export. Almonds are also plentiful, large, and good.

The whole valley is convertible into excellent arable land; yet very little corn is cultivated except for home consumption. The tract of country that stretches along the feet of the great chain of mountains from the Paarl to False Bay, including the two Drakensteens, Fransche Hoek, the Drosdy of Stellenbosch, and Hottentots Holland, is chiefly employed in raising wine and fruits for the Cape-market. The quantity of the former amounts annually to about 6000 leaguers.

Hitherto there have been few speculators among the Dutch planters: the spirit of improvement and experiment never entered into their minds; and it may be a matter of doubt, had not the French Protes tants, who sought an asylum here from the religious persecutions of their once bigoted countrymen, introduced and cultivated the vine, whether at this time the whole colony would have produced a single leaguer of wine. The sugar-cane grows with health and vigour in several parts of the colony; yet none

of the planters have yet procured a pound of sugar. On asking a farmer, who complained that the canes had overrun his garden, why he did not turn them to some account, he replied with that nonchalance which characterizes the nation, that it served to amuse the women and children; but that he should not be the first to try it, as long as he could buy that article in the Cape for six schillings, or three English shillings, a pound.

Among the thick shrubbery that covers the uncultivated parts of the valley, is an abundance of game, particularly of the Cape partridges, which, fearless of man, run about nearly as tame as poultry in a farm-yard; and of korhaens, the otis afra of Linnæus, and white-eared bastard of Latham, which, unlike the partridge, not only fly to a distance at the approach of the sportsman, but keep up, while on the wing, a violent screaming, as if to give notice to other birds of the impending danger. There are also plenty of Cape snipes, Scolopax Capensis, and three species of wild ducks, the anas Capensis, or Cape widgeon, the Dominican duck, and the common teal. Among the quadrupeds that inhabit the valley are the duiker and the griesbok, already described; and the mountains abound with a curious species of antelope, which, from its amazing agility, is called the klip-springer, or rockleaper. Its cloven hoofs are each of them subdivided into two segments, and jagged at the edges, which gives it the power of adhering to the steep sides of the smooth rock without danger of slipping The colour is cinereous grey, and its black horns are short, straight, crect, and annulated one third of their length from the base. The hair is very singular, being so brittle that it breaks instead of bending, adheres loosely to the skin, and is so very light that

it is used as the best article that can be procured for stuffing saddles.

A few miles beyond the Paarl, the Berg or Mountain-river crosses the road. It is here so large and deep in the winter season as to make a pont or floating bridge necessary. A little lower down, however, it is sometimes fordable; and the peasants, to avoid the toll at the ferry, frequently cross it, though at the hazard of their own lives and of their cattle. At this time the river was pretty full; yet two farmers, rather than pay four shillings for the passage at the ferry of their two waggons, ventured through at the ford, and passed it with the loss only of two sheep that were worth at least four times the amount of the toll. The road beyond the ferry is excellent, being a level bed of hard clay; but the country is very thinly inhabited. In advancing to the northward the surface has fewer inequalities, and becomes sandy. Nothing, however, like drifts or beds of sand, meets the eye; but, on the contrary, it wanders over an uninterrupted forest of verdure arising from a variety of frutescent plants, among which the tribes of proteas, of heaths, and two species of scriphium, called here the rhinosceros-bush, predominate. In those places where the ground is least covered, the hillocks thrown up by the termites most abound. Here also, towards the close of the day, a multitude of small land tortoises, the testudo pusilla and the geometrica of Linnæus, were crawling slowly off the road towards the bushes, having basked themselves in the open sunshine during the day. The howling wolf and the yelping jackall began their hideous cries shortly af ter the setting of the sun, and seemed to follow us in the night, keeping at no great distance from the waggons. It was near the middle of the night be

K

fore we arrived at a solitary habitation, situated in a wild, bleak, open country, and on the borders of a lake called the Vogel Valley, or the Bird Lake. The word valley, in the colony, implies either a lake or a swamp: at this time the place in question was the latter; but it abounded with ducks, geese, and teal, and also with the great white pelican, the onocratulus, and the rose-coloured flamingo. The wings of the latter are converted into fans for flapping away the flies that, in incredible multitudes, swarm in the houses of the peasantry, for want of a proper attention to cleanliness; and the pelican is shot for the sake of the fine soft down which lies under his plumage.

A few miles beyond this lake or swamp brought us to the entrance of Roode Sand Kloef, or the red sandy pass over the great chain of mountains. Here the strata of which they are composed, though of the same nature as the Table Mountain, were not horizontal, but dipped to the south-eastward, making with the horizon an angle of about twenty degrees. The ascent of the Kloef is not steep, but very rugged; and a small river that meanders down it must be crossed several times. The plants, sheltered by the large fragments of rock that have rolled down the mountains, are uncommonly luxuriant. Of these the different species of protea were the most conspicuous; that species of ricinus called the Palma Christi, which affords the castor oil, was very plentiful; and the two species of the melianthus grew in every part of the Kloef. The calla Ethiopica was every where abundant and in full flower. The baboons, from their concealed dens in the sides of the mountain, laughed, screamed, and uttered such horrible noises, the whole time that the waggons were ascending the pass, that to a stranger,

not knowing from whence they proceeded, they excited no small degree of surprise.

From the upper part of the Kloef there is no descent to the land of Waveren, or, as the division is now called, Roode Sand. The surface of this vale is four or five hundred feet higher than that which lies on the Cape side of the range of mountains. It is bounded on the eastern side by a branch of the same chain, much higher, however, than that through which the pass lies, yet accessible by waggons. The summits of the mountains were buried in snow, and the thermometer at sunrise stood, on the plain, at the freezing point.

The valley of Roode Sand, or Waveren, is a fertile tract of land, well watered by streamlets falling from the inclosing mountains, and produces abundance

of

corn, some wine, raisins, and other fruits. Several parts are capable of being flooded, and on that account admirably adapted for the cultivation of rice. The Chinese bamboo, a plant not more elegant than it is useful, grows here with great luxuriance, and is employed for whipstocks, and to make frames for the covers of the waggons. The Cape olive grows wild in great abundance, and also the palma christi. Game of various kinds is also plentiful, such as bustards, partridges, snipes, ducks, and mountain geese. Of antelopes they have the duiker, klip-springer, steenbok, griesbok, and reebok. The last is an animal that does not yet appear to have been described in any systematic work. Its size is that of the domestic goat, but it is much more elegantly made. The colour is a bluish grey, the belly and breast white; horns seven or eight inches long, annulated about a third part of the length from the base. Besides these they have the