flowers, boiled, make a dish which may, in taste and appearance, be
compared to spinach. The country about this spot is quite level j the
bushes and frequent eminences of sand, not interrupting the general
flatness of the view. The distance is not more than three English
miles from the town, the houses of which continue in sight from
every part of the road; Table Mountain, the Devil’s Mountain, and
Lion’s Head forming always the most conspicuous feature of the
landscape. This scene afforded me a characteristic, though not a
picturesque, subject for a sketch.
On this road, waggons are constantly passing to and from the
distant parts of the colony; although the month of March, on account
of the rains which then fall, and produce a supply of pasture
along the road for the numerous passing teams of oxen, is the time
when the greatest number of country waggons arrive in Cape Town.
Their appearance, drawn by eight or ten to sixteen oxen, the foremost
pair led by a Hottentot, who, if a young boy, is often quite
naked, together with the immoderately long whips, and their loud
cracking, presents to a stranger a novel and amusing sight. The
length of the stock and thong of these whips, is no less than thirty
feet, and sometimes even more. A boor considers the driving-seat
as a post of honor; but the office of leading the oxen, is thought too
degrading for any but Hottentots and slaves, the colonist never performing
it but in the greatest necessity, and then only in the more
dangerous parts of the road.
As the boors often stop but a single day in Cape Town, though
they have, perhaps, come the distance of a twenty days’ journey, they
very frequently unyoke, or outspan, as it is called, at Salt River, to be
ready to enter the town by day-break the next morning, or as soon
as the barrier gates are opened. By commencing the business of the
day at this early hour, they contrive, generally, to sell the produce
they may have brought with them, and to purchase all they may be in
want of, in the same day, and immediately quit a place where their
oxen would soon starve for want of pasture.
This want of pasture around Cape Town is a serious inconvenience ;
and, in other respects, the situation of the chief town of the colony,
could scarcely have been fixed in a spot worse suited for inland traffic.
Standing, as it does, at the extreme corner of the country, the number
of places within a moderate distance is diminished to one-fourth;
while the length of road from one-half of the number of farms is thus
doubled, if compared with what their distance would have been, had its
situation been more central. Besides which, the number of miles of
incurably heavy sand, by which the town is surrounded, render it still
more difficult of access. Yet, in a country like this, destitute of
rivers capable of admitting ships far inland, the capital can flourish no
where but on the coast, and therefore can be placed centrally in one
way only; that is, either with respect to the length of the colony, or
to its breadth.
From Salt River, my walk led me in a south-easterly direction
to the last windmill; beyond which, ascending the higher ground, is
a heath of pure sand, loose, and exceedingly white. It was quite
covered with Hcsmanthus coccineus in full bloom, the red flowers of
which formed a fine contrast with the snow-white.soil, and produced
a very singular and curious effect. Among them was a variety with
white flowers. *
The wind, blowing very strong, seemed ill-naturedly disposed to
put a stop to all further observations, by leaving no other alternative
than walking with my eyes shut, or being blinded with showers of
sand. In many parts of the Isthmus, this sand is carried from place
to place by the wind, in such quantities, that, in some spots, the
bushes exhibit their roots standing bare, and exposed to the atmosphere
; while, in others, they are nearly buried, leaving no part
visible but the tops of their branches. The large mounds, which are
here frequently met with, have been formed originally by the sand
thus accumulating round either a single bush, or a clump ofbushes.
* On the Flats, a little beyond the windmills, grow, —
Erica mucosa - Erica margaritacea P
Erica gracilis P Erica verticillata
Erica concinna Blairia ertcoides P
Erica cerinthoides