BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 113 



Soon after we left Sandfontyn, we passed the Koega 

 River, a mere periodical stream, seldom showing a continual 

 surface of water, except when heavy rain falls, when it 

 becomes a torrent, and impassable for a short time. The 

 banks were thickly covered with the Acacia Capensis, 

 extending from one side of the hill to the other, in the 

 valley through which that river holds its ' course to the 

 sea-shore. A party of lions have for several years chosen 

 these thickets for their favourite resort, and caused a 

 great deal of damage amongst the horses and cattle of 

 the neighbouring farmers. A good many hysenas also 

 live there during day-time, and cannot be routed out ; 

 and a few black rhinoceros ramble still through the 

 thickets, being the last remnants of their race within 

 the colony. We ascended gradually a hill called the 

 4i Grasrugg," on account of its open feature ; it is chiefly 

 covered with a good pasturage, and is also remarkable in 

 a geological point of viewj the greater part of that hill, 

 or ridge consisting of horizontal strata of a soft kind of lime- 

 stone, mixed in succession with layers of sea-shells, at an 

 altitude of about 500 to 600 feet above the sea. The 

 summit of the ridge is nearly level, and its vegetable 

 productions correspond with the soil whereon they grow; 

 they have a peculiar habit, by which the presence of lime 

 may be suspected beneath. The principal of those plants 

 are the Hermannia holosericea, conglomerata, involucrata, 

 Xerothamnus Ecklonianus, Psilothamnus adpressifolius, Ly- 

 peria microphylla, Acmadenia muraltioides, Helichrysum re- 

 curvatum, Muraltia ruscifolia, Deverra Burchellii, Ficinia 

 prcemorsa, and some others. 



After a few miles* travelling on this elevated table- 

 land, we descended the eastern side, passing over a tract 

 covered with small shrubs of Composite, Ficoidece, Euphor- 

 biacem and Cframinea. We threaded for some time a narrow 

 valley, called the « Koegakammaskloof," where the Rhigozum 

 trichotomum, a begnoniaceous plant, for the first time ap- 

 peared, with many succulent plants, as several species of 

 vol. v. k 



