36 BOTANICAL EXCURSIONS 
velled from Uitenhage north-eastward to Addo Drift, on the 
Sunday river, 25 miles over a hilly country, covered for the 
most part with low but thick * bush ;" the soil a hard clay. 
Though the appearance of this kind of country is in some de- 
gree monotonous, yet its varied and singular vegetation is very 
attractive to the eye of a naturalist. The strange, stiff, gaunt = 
forms of the leafless Euphorbias, which suggest the idea of 
some monstrous Indian idols; the Aloes, with their spear-like — | 
leaves, and tall scarlet spikes; the pale green foliage of the 
Spekboom,* which is said to be the favourite food of the Ele- 
phant; the Crassulas, covered with milk-white blossoms 5 
the Cotyledon, with its bluish leaves and bright red flowers; 
the scarlet Geraniums peeping from amidst the other shrubs, 
altogether form a combination extremely interesting to a bo- 
tanical eye, and which must strike every traveller of ordinary 
habits of observation, by its dissimilarity to any thing that is 
to be seen in other countries. There cannot indeed be a 
vegetation more peculiar or of a more marked character. 
_ This tract of bush is of great extent; from the Van Staa- 
den’s mountains, on the S.W. of Uitenhage, it stretches, with 
few breaks, by the Sunday and Bushman’s rivers, and the 
Zuureberg, to the banks of the Fish river, along both sides of 
which it forms a belt of several miles in width. — 
We passed the night at a very small but not uncomfort- 
able inn, kept by an Englishman, on the right bank of the 
Sunday river. This house was attacked during the late war 
on the frontier, by a party of Caffers, and the marks of the 
assagais which they threw, are still visible on the door- 
posts and window-sills. The innkeeper told us that he had 
had several horses eaten by lions quite lately, and that there 
were buffaloes also in the neighbouring “ bush." 
The Sunday river is here a strong and very muddy stream, 
flowing in a deep channel, with high broken cliffs, (apparently 
of clay and sandstone,) ranging along its right bank. Itis 
subject to great floods, and has been known to swell above 
* Portulacaria Afra, 
