124 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



cleared up soon afterwards, and we expected to proceed on 

 our journey the following morning, but to our great disap- 

 pointment, the river had become quite a torrent, and was 

 impassable for the next two days. 



The general aspect of the country was level, and at a dis- 

 tance to the north and east, belted by small hills. Looking 

 back to the coast, we saw the easterly spurs of the loftier 

 Snow Mountains. Considering our elevated position, at least 

 2000 feet above the level of the sea, we had expected some 

 change in the distribution of plants, according to the adopted 

 rules of elevation ; instead of the species growing in a 

 depressed, desert-like country, we should have met already 

 with plants, growing on elevated spots, in a moist atmosphere, 

 as Heaths, Protectees, Diosmea, Restiacea, &c. ; but it is evi- 

 dent, that from some cause or other, no dependence can 

 be placed on a theory, which proves to be not constant, at 

 least in South Africa. In this district, the greater part of 

 the moisture is carried from the Southern Ocean by breezes 

 of wind; when approaching the first mountain range, 

 and coming in a cooler atmosphere, it becomes con- 

 densed j therefore, an abundance of moisture is constantly 

 deposited there j in consequence of which, we observe a luxu- 

 riant growth of many kinds of plants just mentioned, 

 and numerous allied tribes belonging to a humid, moun- 

 tain region. After the greater portion of damp is depo- 

 sited on that range, a small quantity only is left behind to be 

 carried by the winds farther into the interior, to the secondary 

 ranges of mountains; and becoming more diffused from pass- 

 ing over an extensive barren tract, like a South- African 

 Karroo, heated to a high degree by a burning sun, almost no 

 exhalation from the sea can reach those inland mountains, 

 and scarcely a cloud is visible towards their tops, while clouds 

 are constantly resting on the summits and sides of the moun- 

 tains of the first range, nearest to the sea. 



Owing to the extreme dryness of the atmosphere behind 

 the first mountain range, we may see there more elevated 

 regions inhabited by plants, with the same capability of 



