diftance from the Cape, and the bad roads over the Gardouw,
bold out little encouragement for the farmer to extend the cultivation
of grain, fruit, or wine, beyond the neceffary fupply of
h'is own family. Dried fruit is the principal article they fend to
market, after the fupplies, which they furniih, of horfes, horned
cattle, and iheep. The country on each fide of the lower part
of the river is dry and barren, and for many miles from the
mouth entirely uninhabited. A chalybeate fpring of hot water,
of the temperature of io8° of Fahrenheit’s Scale, flows in a
very confiderable ftream out of the Cardouw Mountain into
the Olifant’s River. And a bathing- houfe is eredted over the
fpring.
All the fmaller kinds of antelopes, jackalls, hares, and partridges,
are very abundant in the four laft-mentioned divifions.
Thefe divifions of Stellenbofch and Drakenftein, above enumerated,
lie on the weft or Cape fide of the great chain of
mountains, and comprehend the moft valuable portion of the
colony. The tranfmontane divifions of Stellenbofch are,
17. The Biedouw, which is the flanting fide of the great
mountains behind the Olifant’s River, a cold, elevated, rugged
trad! of country, covered with coppice wood, and very thinly
inhabited. The ftock of the farmers confifts o f iheep and horned
cattle.
18. Onder Bokkeveld is the elevated flat furface of a Table
Mountain, whofe fides on the weft and north are high and almoft
moft perpendicular rocks, piled on each other in horizontal ftrata
like thofe of Table Mountain at the Cape ; but it defcends with
a gentle flope to the eaft ward, and terminates in Karroo plains;
Thè gralTes-on the fummit are ihort but fweet, and the finali
flirubby plants are excellent food for iheep and goats. The
horfes, alio, of this divifion, are among the beft which the colony
produces, and the cattle, as is the cafe in all the mountainous
fituations, thrive very well. In fome of the valleys, where the
grounds will admit of irrigation, the common returns of wheat
are forty, and of barley fixty, for one, without any reft for
twenty years, without fallowing, and without manure. In
fuch fituations the foil is deeply tinged with iron, and abounds
with maifes cif the fame kind of iron-ftone which I have already
mentioned.
The Spring-bok, or the fpringing antelope, once fo abundant
in this'divifion, as to have been the caufe of its name, is now
but an occafional vifitor, and feen.only in fmall herds of a few
hundreds. { Steenboks and orbles and griejboks are ftill plentiful
and large. The korhanes or buftards, of three fpecies, and hares
are fo plentiful that they were continually among the horfes
feet in riding over the country. On the Karroo plains, clofe
behind the Bokkeveld, are found the two large fpicies of antelope,
the eland and the gemfbok, but their numbers are rapidly
diminiihing in confequence of the frequent excurfions of the
farmers on purpofe to ihoot them ; not fo much for the fake
of their fleih, which, however, is excellent, but for their ikins
alone.