IN SOUTH AFRICA. 33 
hills extend along the shore on both sides of it. Yet it is a 
place of considerable commercial importance, being the only 
sea-port of this prosperous and improving division of the 
colony. In the year I was at the Cape, the value of the ex- 
ports from Port Elizabeth (of the produce of the colony) 
amounted to £39,768 ; the declared value of the goods im- 
ported into the same place in British shipping was £103,077. 
The anchorage of Algoa Bay is quite open to the S.E. winds, 
and has been generally supposed to be dangerous; but I was 
assured by more than one naval officer at the Cape, that it 
is not unsafe for well-provided vessels, if proper care be 
taken. 'The landing, however, is bad, and often impracti- 
cable, on account of the heavy surf, and a pier or jetty is 
much wanted. It is proposed also to erect a lighthouse on 
Cape Recif, which bounds the bay to the south-west. 
This unpromising neighbourhood produces many curious 
plants, particularly of the fleshy kinds. Aloes of several 
species, Crassulas and Cotyledons with fine scarlet flowers, 
and Euphorbias, whose fluted columnar stems are beset with 
formidable prickles, flourish in the crevices of the sandstone 
rocks and among loose fragments of stone, exposed to the 
full glare of the sun. In company with these are some 
beautiful Everlastings, and various plants (Note G), of a hard, 
rigid, stunted character, but with handsome blossoms. The 
sand-hills along the coast are partially covered with dwarfish - 
evergreen bushes, seldom more than three feet high, inter- E 
mixed with succulent plants of the strangest shapes. The 
Boerboontjes,* with its hard, knotty, twisted branches, its 
scanty dark green foliage, and brilliant carmine-coloured 
flowers, is plentiful here, but in the form of a low serubby 
bush, whereas on the banks of the Camtoos it grows to the 
size of an apple-tree. It is a very general plant in the 
Eastern province. The little stream which comes down to : 
the sea at Port Elizabeth is covered with beautiful blue — 
; * Schottia speciosa, ^ — 
VOL. II. Ege 
