44 



it became comparatively moderate. It is seldom, indeed, 

 known to blow with much violence beyond the first chain of 

 mountains. The country on the other side is high, barren, 

 and covered with hard rushy plants, among which the genus 

 Restio predominates. A few miles beyond the Kloof, we 

 crossed a branch of the Palmiet River, and keeping to the 

 left, followed a path recently made over the Nieuberg, which 

 led us to the farm of Stephanus Leroex, where we proposed 

 to halt for some days. This farm is situated in a fine 

 amphitheatre, enclosed on one side by a bend of the great 

 chain of mountains that commences at Hangklip Point, and 

 on the other by the Nieuberg. The area is about ten miles 

 across, and forms a gentle slope from the circumference to 

 the centre, with a smooth verdant surface, regularly undu- 

 lated, and watered by numerous mountain-streamlets, which 

 meet in the middle of the vallej', and form the swampy 

 source of the River Sonderend. The channel of this river, 

 as well as its tributary streams, is encumbered with the 

 Palmieti a gigantic species of bog-rush, [Junciis serratus,) 

 that spreads and interlaces its creeping stem over the surface, 

 forming a strong elastic net-work, upon which a man may walk 

 without the least risk of sinking. The leaves of this plant bear 

 a strong resemblance in figure and disposition to those of the 

 smaller species of Pandanus. The stems, stripped of the foliage, 

 are used by the wine-farmers as padding to fix the leggers 

 against the sides of the waggons, when they send their wine 

 to the market. After serving this purpose, they are flung 

 out on the streets, and being of a black colour, very heavy, 

 and much of the same size, gave rise to the ludicrous mis- 

 take of a certain English traveller, who has informed the pub- 

 lic that the streets of Capetown are paved with bullocks' tails. 

 " Though the surface of the ground here, as well as in 

 most other parts of the Colony, appears at a distance abun- 

 dantly verdant, the produce is mostly of an useless, if not 

 noxious quality, such as cattle invariably reject. A few 

 straggling tufts of Aristida, Holcus, Ehrharta, and Anthistirea^ 

 spring up here and there among a profusion of bulbous 

 rooted plants, and Syngenesioiis shrubs. In the vicinity of the 



