140 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER. 



steep slopes behind it, buried more or less in different places in 

 glistening white sand. 



The hills about the Cape district have all an exactly similar 

 appearance as far as their clothing with vegetation is concerned. 

 They look not unlike Scotch moorland, being covered every- 

 where with low bushes without trees. The vegetation has 

 a general brownish or greyish tint; there are no bright greens in 

 the landscape. This arises from the fact that the plants are 

 nearly all evergreen, and have, as a rule, either narrow needle- 

 like leaves, like the pines, or leaves covered with grey downy 

 hairs ; in fact, all sorts of contrivances for resisting their great 

 enemy, the drought. 



The most characteristic feature, however, in the landscape is 

 the showing through in all directions of the red soil between 

 the bushes and clumps of vegetation; the interspaces not 

 being filled in with grasses, and no continuous covering of 

 vegetation being formed. 



In the flowering season, from June to August, which depends 

 here on the rainy season, and falls thus in mid-winter, the 

 aspect of the landscape is entirely changed, and whole tracts of 

 country are coloured of most brilliant hues. We were too late 

 for this, but nevertheless could form an idea of what it must be 

 like, because, though the greater numbers of plants of each of 

 the various species blossom all together at the regular season 

 of the species, there are always to be found stragglers blossom- 

 ing at other seasons, and nearly every plant can be collected in 

 flower by search at almost any period of the year. 



Simons Bay is 84 miles from Cape Town by road, but a 

 railway runs from a village called Wynberg, about 14 miles 

 distant from Simons Bay, to the town. There is practically 

 only one road at Simons Bay, for though two others start with 

 great promise, the one along the shore towards Cape Point, and 

 the other up the steep hill at the back of the town (Eed Hill), 

 they soon lose their character and dwindle to the condition 

 of mere tracks over the moorland, very difficult for a stranger 

 to follow, as I more than once found. Hence " going up the 

 road " or " down the road," is the term at Simons Bay for visits 

 to and fro Cape Town. 



