to be able, at high water, to crofs the bar, in which Cafe they
might lie, at all feafons, in perfeCt fecurity.
All thefe rivers are well flocked with perch, eels, and fmall
turtle, and, to a certain diftance from the fea-coaft, they abound
with almoft every kind of fea-fifh peculiar to this part of the
world.
Befide the rivers here enumerated, the whole flip of land,
ftretching along the fea-coaft, between the entrance of Falfe
Bay and the Great Fiih River, is interfered by ftreamlets whofe
waters are neither abforbed nor evaporated; but they generally
run in fuch deep chafms as to be of little ufe towards the promotion
of agriculture by the aid of irrigation.
The mountains, as I have before obferved, generally run in
chains, parallel to each other, and moft commonly in the direction
of eaft and weft. At a diftance they pofiefs neither the
fublime nor the beautiful, but the approach to- their bales and
the paffages of the kloofs are awfully grand and terrific; Ibrne-
times their naked points of folid rock rife almoft perpendicularly,
like a wall of mafonry, to the height of three, four, -and' even
five thoufand feet, refembling the Table Mountain on the Cape
peninfula; ibmetimes the inclination of the ftrata is fo- great,
that the whole raafe of mountain appears to have its centre of
gravity falling without the bafe, and as if it momentarily
threatened to ftrew the plain with its venerable ruins; in other
places, where the 1‘oofer fragments have given way, they are
irreguirregularly
peaked and broken into a variety of fantaftic ihapes.
In fhort, all the chains of mountains in the fouthern part of
South Africa, may be confidered to be made up of a repetition
o f parts fimilar to thofe of the Devil’s Hill, the Table Mountain,
and the Lion’s Head, and of the fame materials, but generally
of a more gigantic fize ; and all their fummits are entirely
deftitute of verdure.
D i v i s i o n , P o p u l a t i o n , and P r o d u c e .
When the Dutch Eaft India Company perceived their fettle-
ment extending far beyond the bounds they had originally prescribed,
they found it expedient to divide the country into diS-
triCts, and to place over each a civil magiftrate with the title of
Landroft, who, with his council called Hemraaden, was authorized
to fettle petty difputes among the farmers, or between
them and the native Hottentots, levy fines within a certain
Sum, colleft and apply the parochial affeffments, and enforce the
orders and regulations of Government. His diftriCt was distributed
into a number of Suhdivifions, over each of which was
appointed a Feldtwagtmeefter or country overfeèr, whofe duty
was tp take cognizance of any abufes committed within his di-
vifion, and report the fame to the Landroft, to adjnil difputes
about Springs or water-courSes, and to forward the orders of
Government.
Little as the authority was which. Government had thus
delegated to the Landroft and his affiftants, that little was fubjeCfc
VjO L . i i . x x fom e -