42 
of water can be depended on. With such a resource, skil- 
fully applied, this barren waste might be converted into 
fertile gardens; from which the capital could be furnished 
with an abundant supply of vegetables, and an end put to the 
present monopoly of these articles, by a few farmers in the — 
immediate vicinity of the town. j 
** A great part of the plain is covered with a fine siliceous _ 
sand, furnished by the disintegration of the sandstone moun- — 
tains which surround it. It shifts perpetually from place to 
place at the humour of the breeze, forming a succession of - 
banks, or ridges, white as driven snow. ‘This periodical — 
motion has a singular effect on the shrubby plants which are — 
scattered over its surface. When suddenly overwhelmed by : 
the sand, they push up their tops until they emerge into day- — 
light; but the lower branches are all suffocated, and the . 
trunk, now converted into a root, sends off a new system of — 
branches, which direct their course downward through the — 
drift. In proportion as the sand accumulates, the plants | 
grow up, keeping their heads above the surface; but without — 
any apparent stem. A squall comes on, the bank is dispersed; _ 
and the shrubs, now laid bare to the original level of the soil, 
exhibit the grotesque appearance of so many Mangrove-trees. — 
* Though the flowering season was pretty nearly over, Í — 
observed a variety of plants still in blossom; among others _ 
a large blue-flowered Aristea, a Dianthus, and several species — 
of Passerina, particularly the P. grandiflora and uniflora — 
The greater part of the Isthmus is covered with shrubs of 
this last genus, which are in much request in Capetown, a 
the material usually employed to heat the bakers’ ovens — 
The genus Restio is likewise abundant, and communicates — 
somewhat of a glassy appearance to the surface; but these — 
plants, except during the earliest stage of their growth, are — 
* The diagonal extent of the Isthmus from Capetown tò — 
Brinksfarm on the Eerste River, is about twenty-four mile& 
Throughout this dreary expanse, nota house is to be see» — 
nor an object to relieve the eye, or divert the mind from its — 
own reflections, except here and there.a waggon in its PPO — 
