4 4 THE FRIENDLY RIVER. — A NATURAL OBELISK. 5 M arch,
satisfactory, and the How and When will probably remain for ever
unanswered. All the smaller hills which we passed, were covered with,
or perhaps consisted entirely of, these stones, or gigantic pebbles
as they may be called: yet the larger hills, or mountains, consisted
of regular stratified rock; as may be perceived in the plate referred
to.
We passed over a tract thickly covered with a variety of bushes,
the height of which was generally about two feet, and intermingled
with mesembryanthema. Such land is called Karro ground by the
Cape farmers, who esteem it more wholesome, and better suited to
the African sheep, than grass-land.
The Hyena mountains terminate on the east, in a number of
low rocky hills; many of which are of the nature just described.
Kaabi, who here assumed the oflice of guide, conducted us through
a wide opening, or what the boors would name a poort, where we again
found our Friendly River, (as I would in twofold gratitude have
named it,) passing the same way, as if desirous of travelling with
us. Its channel was narrow and deep, and almost hidden in fields
of luxuriant grass. Its winding course along the valley, or rather,
plain, was only to be distinguished by the verdant reeds. The hill
upon our left was composed of those black shining ‘ boulder-stones,
above mentioned; and that upon our right was rendered still more remarkable
by an object which, at first sight, excited my greatest surprise,
as I viewed it, for a few moments, as a work of art; and was
lost in wondering what nation, able to erect such a monument, had
inhabited these, now wild and deserted, regions. But though an
Obelisk, it was not the work of man: it was planted there by the
hand of Nature. It stood at the foot of the hill, and appeared to be
composed of sand stone. The mountain, of which it formed a part,
exhibited regular strata; and the obelisk itself, besides its pedestal,
was formed of four blocks, piled, as it seemed, one upon another;
but most probably left in that form and position, by the mouldering
away of the adjoining rocks. Yet such an explanation would require
that this monument should be of harder stone than that which had
surrounded it ; a fact which would be still more extraordinary. Or,