the fugar-tree, from the great quantity o f faccharine juice con-
tained in the bottom of its vafe-ihaped flowers. Many of the
inhabitants are at the trouble of colletting this juice, which is
fometimes ufed as a ftomachic, and fometimes boiled down to a
thick fyrup for the purpofe o f preferving fruits. Several
ipecles o f the gaudy-plumed certhia, or creeper, come in alfo
for their ihare, and at this feafon of the year may be feen in
vaft numbers perching themfelves on the edge of the corollas
and fucking,, with their long fickle-ihaped bills, “ the honied*
« fweets.” The iridefcent and brilliant colors of thefe beautiful
little birds, fluttering about the variegated blofloms of the
protea, cannot fail to aftraft the notice of the paffenger, for a
time, from every other objeft. One fpecies in particular (the
chalybea o f Linnaeus) commands attention to its clear melodious
note. It lings delightfully in the cage, where it is kept
with difficulty, exifting entirely on fugar and water.
The mountains that form the eaftern boundary o f the valley
are eminently grand, but are deftitute, near their fummits, o f a
ihrub, or even a blade o f grafs. They are a part o f that great
chain that ftretches from Falfe Bay to the northward, and to
which a French naturalift has given the name of the Back-bone
o f the Earth j a name, however, that is much more appropriate
by their appearance than great extent. Their naked fummits
are pointed and jagged, and divided like the vertebrse o f the
back-bone o f an animal. They confift, like the Table Mountain,
o f a number o f fand-ftone ftrata, placed in a horizontal
direaion, contain a great deal o f iron, being in places perfeftly
red, and they reft upon beds o f granite, clay, and Hate. This
range
range of mountains, like an immenfe wall, Ihuts out entirely
from the Cape the countries that lie far beyond i t ; fo completely,
indeed, that a few men in poffeifion of the paffes would
always be able to cut off all communication between the fea-
coaft and the interior. O f thefe paffes, or kloofs as they are
called by the colonifts, there are but three that are ever ufed by
wheel-carriages. Hottentot Holland’s Kloof near Falfe Bay,
which opens a communication with the diftria of Swellendam
and the eaftern parts of the colony along the fea-coaft : Roode
Sand, or red fand, Kloof, oppofite to Saldanha Bay, leading to
Graaff Reynetj and the remoteft parts of the colony ; and
■ Eland’s Kloof, ftill farther north, which opens into a wild and
almoft uninhabited part of the country..
Though the mountains be wild and barren, nothing could be
more beautiful, rich, and well covered, than the vale they
enclofe, which is well-watered by the numberlefs arms of the
Berg river, uniting near the middle, and meandering through it
with a fmooth and almoft imperceptible current. This vale
contains the divifions, or pariihes,. of Great and Little Draken-
fteen* Franfche Hoek or French corner, and the Paarl. The
laft is an aflémblage of about thirty houfes, difpofed into two
ftreight lines, and are fo far detached from each other as to
form a ftreet about a mile in length. The church ftands near
the middle. This, as well as moft of the houfes, is neatly covered
with rye-ftraw : a coating of this thatch, if properly laid
on, will laft from twenty to thirty years. The houfes are
generally furrounded with plantations o f oaks. The common
fize of thefe is from ten to fifteen feet in circumference, and
from.