banks in the beds of rivers fupplies alfo another obfervation
that is generally found to take place on the grand fcale. They
continue to elongate at both extremities: the upper increafes
by the diminution o f the ftream, which it has divided and
thrown on . each fide, and the lower by the eddy caufed from
the meeting again o f this divided current. Analogous to this
effedt, the point of land between the confluence of two rivers
has been obferved, by an able geographer, always to travel
downwards towards the fea 5 and the point o f land that divides
a river, to travel upwards towards the fource.
The clufters of mountains that form what is ufually called
the Sneuwberg, are compofed of fand-ftone lying nearly in
horizontal ftrata; few o f them were obferved to have the
quartzy fummits that prevailed. in the great ranges near the
Cape, and that o f Zwarteberg; but their bafes, like thefe,
refled on blue fchiftus. The foil of the Sneuwberg was generally
clayey, frequently clodded together in indurated maffes
that appeared greafy to the eye, and fuch maffes contained a
large portion of dark foliated mica. The plants that chiefly
prevailed on the elevated parts were tufts of long grafs, fmall
heathy Ihrubs, a beautiful mefembryanthemum with large
clufters o f fmall, bright, red flowers, and another that feemed
to differ in nothing from the former, except in the color of the
petals, which were white. Befides thefe were alfo a fmall
diofma, and two fpecies o f the iris with tall fpikes of flowers,
one blue, the other yellow. The lower parts of the plains
were charmingly embroidered with almoft the whole tribe of
fyngenefious plants. O f thefe were molt abundant various
fpecies
fpecies of arlilotis, othonna, cineraria, after, calendula, athanajia,
tanecetum, feneció, and gnapbalium, all of them, at this time, in
the height of their bloom.
But that which moftly difcriminated the Sneuwberg from
other parts of the country, Was the total want of fhrubbery.
For miles together thefe elevated plains produced not a ftick.
We paffed one kloof between two hills, in which flood about a
dozen fmall mimofas; and nothing could more ftrongly have
marked the fcarcity of bufhes than the prodigious quantity o f
nefts that thefe Contained, made by different fpecies of fmall
birds, chiefly fparrows, finches, and grofsbeaks. They were
fcattered over the branches as thickly as thofe o f crows in a
rookery; and, what was ftill more remarkable, there flood in
the fame bufh, with fix or eight others, the neft o f a hawk,
containing two white eggs with fmall crimfon fpecks. The
bird, on the wing, appeared to be brown and white, and was
named by the peafantry the white falcon. The nefts of the
fmall birds were moftly hedged round with thorns, and, like
that of the magpie, had a cover built over them, and they were
all entered through tubes or fmall holes.
It isa remarkable fa£t that there are many perfons in Sneuwberg
who have never feen a tree. Even the commandant,
who for many years had traverfed the whole country to the
northward in expeditions againft the Bosjefmans, had never
feen a wood till he came with us, on the prefent journey, into
the Kaffer country. Very few of the houfes have a ftick of
any fort ftanding near them. The violent winds, more than
the