pelican is fhot for the fake of the fine foft down which lies under
his plumage.
A few miles beyond this lake or fwamp brought us to the
entrance o f Roode Sand Kloef, or the red fandy pafs over the
great chain o f mountains. Here the ftrata of which they are
compofed, though o f the fame nature as the Table Mountain,
were not horizontal, but dipped to the fouth-eaftward, making
with the horizon an angle of about twenty degrees. The
afcent o f the Kloef is not fteep, but very rugged ; and a final!
river that meanders down it mull be eroded feveral times. The
plants, fheltered by the large fragments o f rock that have rolled
down the mountains, are uncommonly luxuriant. O f thefe
the different fpecies of protea were the mod conlpicuous; that
fpecies o f ricinas called the palma Chridi, which affords the
cador oil, was very plentiful; and the two fpecies o f the me-
lianthus grew in every part o f the Kloef. The calla Ethiopica
was everywhere abundant and in full flower. The baboons,
from their concealed dens in the fides of the mountain, laughed,
fcreamed, and uttered fuch horrible noifes, the whole time that
the waggons were afcending the pafs, that to a firanger, not
knowing from whence they proceeded, they excited no fmall
degree o f furprife.
From the upper part o f the Kloef there is no defcent to the
land o f Waveren, or, as the divifion is now called, Roode Sand.
The furface o f this vale is four or five hundred feet higher
that which lies on the Cape fide o f the range o f mountains.
It is bounded on the eadern fide by a branch o f the fame chain,
much
much higher, however, than that through which the pafs lies,
yet acceffible by waggons. The fummits o f the mountains
were buried in fnow, and the thermometer at funrife flood, on
the plain, at the freezing point.
The valley of Roode Sand, or Waveren, is a fertile trad: of
land, well watered by flreamlets falling from the inclofing
mountains, and produces abundance of corn, fome wine, rai-
fins, and other fruits. Several parts are capable of being
flooded, and on that account admirably adapted for thé cultivation
of rice. The Chinefe bamboo, a plant not more elegant
than it is üfeful, grows here with great luxuriance, and is employed
for whipdocks, and to make frames for the covers of the
waggons. The Cape olive grows wild in great abundance, and
alfo the palma Chridi. Game o f various kinds is alfo plentiful,
fuch as budards, partridges, fnipes, ducks, and mountain geefe.
Of antelopes they have the duiker, klip-fpringer, fleenbok,
griefbok, and reebok. The lad is an animal that does not yet
appear to have been defcribed in any fyflematic work. Its fize
is that of the domedic goat, but it is much more elegantly
made. The color is a bluifli grey, the belly and bread white j
horns feven or eight inches long, annulated about a third part
of the length from the bafe. Befides thefe they have the Cape
hare, and an animal that burrows in the ground called the yzer
varie, or iron hog, the flefli of which, when falted and dried,
is edeemed by the Dutch as a great delicacy. It is the hyjirtx
erijtata, or crefied porcupine of Pennant. Several o f the
farmers breed them ; but it is a vicious animal, and not fafe to
be approached by flrangers. The aard varie or earth-hog,
the