cles, wafted by the winds and the torrents, have refted on the
plains that ftretch along the fea coaft. The united flreamlets of
water among thefe hills compofe a iheet of confiderable extent,
called the Verlooren valley, or the Forlorn lake. It had fome
refemblance to the Knyfna, near Plettenberg’s bay, but was
totally devoid o f the appendages that beautify the latter. In-
ftead o f green knolls, ikirted and capped by foreft trees, the
Forlorn lake was furrounded by barren mountains o f fand,
crowned with maffes of naked rock. The margin o f the lake]
however, was belted with good ground, and feemed to be tolerably
well inhabited.
It was three long days’ journeys before the hills o f fand
were left behind, and a new fort o f country, ftill Tandy, presented
along the banks of the Olifant, or Elephant’s river, which,
like the Berg, is one of the few rivers in the colony that is never
entirely dried up. It receives a conftant fupply from the numerous
rills that defcend from the great northern chain of
mountains, along the feet of which it flows, till their discontinuance
in a conneited ranges between the thirty-firft and
thirty-fecond degree of latitude. Here they branch out into a
number of rugged hills and detached maffes, till at length they
mingle with the Karroo plains. After the breaking up o f the
chain of mountains, the Elephant’s river turns off to the weft-
ward, and falls into the fea, in latitude 31 ¿° north. The
mouth o f this river is contracted, rocky, and ihallow, and
feldom fafe to be entered by boats. Within, it is navigable near
thirty miles up the country, which is, however, wild, and
almoft uninhabited, owing to the fcarcity of frelh water.
The
The banks o f the river, where we crqffed it, afforded feveral
very excellent farms. The rice that was produced here was a
large heavy grain, and white as fnow. The multitude of birds
attracted by this grain, requires a number’ of people to guard
it from them, - The fmall LoXia AJlrild' \& particularly trouble-
fome. The immefnfe flocks of this fpecies of Grofsbeak may in
fome degree be conceived, from the circumftande of three-aud-
fixty having been.fliotat one'difcharge of a fmall fowlihg-piece.
On the twenty-firft I attempted, with fixteen freih oxen in
the waggon, to crofs the great chain of mountains ; which was
effeCted in about eight hours. The paffage had not been made
at this place for a length of time by any waggon, yet as the
ufual circuitous road would have occafioned the lofs o f a whole
day, I conlidered it as an objeCt worth the triaL
This part of the chain of mountains was exceedingly grand
and lofty, and the road that ferpentized through the lower
paffes, between the high points, was dreadfully ileep and rocky.
On approaching the fummit, the fame kind of pyramidal remains
made their appearance} in the midft o f a furface of fand
and fragments of rock. Thefe peaks were fome of them a thou-
famd feet high, and of fuch vaft bulk, that each might be con-
fidered as a feparater mountain. They form the very .higheft
ridge of the great chain, but the general funamit to be paffed
over, in the approach, to them, was. at leaft- five miles in width.
The grotelque manner in which the refilling fragments grew out
o f this furface, or, rolling from the upper ridges, had tumbled