26 BOTANICAL EXCURSIONS 
had found him a very agreeable travelling companion, full of 
knowledge relating to the country and its productions, and 
most obliging in communicating the information he possessed. 
March 31.—A wearisome journey of eleven hours and a 
half brought us from hence to the house of the Field-Com- 
mandant, Rademeyer, in the middle of the Long Kloof, where 
we spent the next day, being Sunday. This Long Kloof, 
which took us two long days to travel through, is a narrow 
and rather elevated valley, running from W. to E., bounded 
on the N. by a chain of hills running parallel to the great 
Zwarteberg ; on the S. by the range of mountains, which I 
have already often mentioned, and which runs eastward 
through the whole length of Zwellendam and George districts, 
and a part of Uitenhage, ending at the Kromme river. Some 
generaland comprehensive name is very much wanted for 
this important chain, which is known in various parts as the 
Zwellendam, the Auteniqua, and the Zitzikamma mountains. 
In the * Encyclopedia of Geography! it is erroneously called 
the Langekloof, a name which belongs to the valley, and not 
to the mountains that bound it. | | 
This long valley, although crossed by numerous streams, 
is on the whole of a remarkably arid and monotonous appear- 
ance. Indeed, short of actual desert, I can hardly imagine 
any thing more wearisome : not a tree, not a house or trace 
of cultivation for miles together ; scarcely a bush above three 
feet high; nor a tinge of green, except along the margins of 
the streams, whose course is indicated by a narrow stripe of 
reeds and rushes. A great part of the ground is covered ex- 
clusively with the melancholy grey Rhinoceros-bush. The 
mountains on the south are extremely steep and rugged, 
rising into a number of sharp pyramidal peaks, and would be 
picturesque if set off by a tolerable foreground; but without 
this they are too barren and savage for beauty; as their 
flanks exhibit nothing but naked, grey, stratified rock, like 
the cliffs of Table Mountain, without a tree or a blade of grass. 
The streams, as I have said, are numerous, and though small 
are never entirely dried up, so that it surprises one to see - 
