Here I could have rested the whole day; here I could have fixed
my abode for months: enjoying the delightful shade, and inhaling
the refreshing air. Rapt with the pleasing sensations which the
scenery inspired, I sat on the bank a long time contemplating the
serenity and beauty of the view. The enormous footsteps of the
mighty River-Horse, imprinted the sandy shore with numerous large
holes, made as he nightly emerges from his watery element, to
feed on the grass and foliage along the shore. Lower down, the
wreck of large trees which had been swept away by the stream,
during some great inundation, and here caught the bottom,
leaving their crooked weather-beaten branches, thrust up above the
surface, stood a monument of the resistless power of the flood at
such times ; though now, so smooth and gentle.
The willows (Wilgan-boom) which ornamented the banks, bore
a great resemblance in their growth to the ‘ Weeping Willow,’ of our
gardens, but are botanically different *; they occupied the lower
rank close to the water’s edge, growing to the height of fifty feet;
the next was filled chiefly with Zwartebast (Black-bark f), Karreehout,
and jBuffetdoom (Buffalo-thorn) %; and the uppermost with the
Doomboom.
The willow had just put on its new leaves, and their lively
yellow-green, and clean vernal freshness, had a cheerful effect on the
spirits, and delighted and relieved the eye by a hue the most soothing
and grateful. The Black-bark and Buffalo-thorn had not yet put
on their summer dress, but the soft umbrageous foliage of the Karree-
tree remains equally verdant at all seasons.
common on the margins of rivers, but has been engraved too heavily to convey a just
notion of its appearance. The figures are a party of Bushmen.
* Salix G a riep in aC. G .1637. et 2669. Arbor viginti-pedalis. llamuli glabri
penduli. Folia acute et anguste lanceolata, serrulata, glabra, subtùs glaucescentia.
Calyx pubescens. Amenta mascula cylindrica foliis breviora. Stamina 5. Racemi
foeminei foliis breviores. Capsulae glabras ovatae pedicellatse, bivalves.
f Bouena decidua, C. G. 1750. Frutex 15-pedalis. Cortex nigrescens. Folia
anguste-lanceolata, obtusiuscula glabra (juniora pubescentia.) Flores axillares. Pedun-
culi longissimi fìliformes penduli.
The name of Ziwaribaste is given, in the Cape Colony, to Royena lucida.
J Zizyphus lubalinus. Licht.