BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 115 



comb, and run with all speed a considerable distance before 

 they eat the honey ; and as the bees become alarmed 

 by this robbery, the baboon takes care not to repeat 

 this trick unless the bees are quiet again. 



On the following day we directed our course towards the 

 Adow, an elevated tract, or continuation of hills, commencing 

 near the shores of the Algoa Bay, and running from south 

 to north; they are thickly clad with wood almost to the 

 summit, like the whole country. The tops, however, are 

 covered with the finest pasturage, green nearly all the year 

 round. Here the climate is cool and pleasant, owing to 

 a moist atmosphere from the sea, and presenting a great 

 contrast to the country below towards the Sunday River, 

 with its dreary appearance during the summer months. 

 Below, in some sheltered valleys, grow many trees useful 

 for timber, as Podocarpus Thunbergii, (Hook.), Pteroxylon 

 utile, Crocoscylon excelsum, Fagara armata. On the higher 

 part grow shrubs of Flacourtia rhamnoides, Prockia rotundi- 

 folia, Eriudaphus Zeyheri, (Nees), and Tecorna Capensis, that 

 highly ornamental shrub. The formation of limestone may 

 here also be traced towards the top of the hills, but in general 

 the surface is covered with a soil of reddish clay. In the 

 forests, on the stems and branches of trees, grow several 

 sorts of Epiphytes, belonging chiefly to Angracum. Many 

 birds inhabit these woods, of which the Louri, with its fine 

 plumage, is not a rare one. The Buffalo, Tragelaphus syl- 

 vatica, and Cephalopus cotrulea, are the principal game in 

 these woods. The Adow bush was famous in former years 

 for numerous herds of elephants, traversing during night 

 the country and the public routes, when it was scarcely safe 

 to travel or to halt there in the dark. Several acci- 

 dents happened to persons, who remained out during the 

 night; they were attacked by those huge animals, their 

 waggons broken, and occasionally some of their oxen killed. 

 Only a few stragglers still live in those woods, and 

 their number being small, they are more timid than 

 formerly. 



K 2 



