42 



of water can be depended on. With such a resource, skil- 

 fully applied, this barren waste might be converted into 

 fertile gardens; from which the capital could be furnished 

 with an abundant supply of vegetables, and an end put to the 

 present monopoly of these articles, by a few farmers in the 

 immediate vicinity of the town. 



" A great part of the plain is covered with a fine siliceous 

 sand, furnished by the disintegration of the sandstone moun- 

 tains which surround it. It shifts perpetually from place to 

 place at the humour of the breeze, forming a succession of 

 banks, or ridges, white as driven snow. This periodical 

 motion has a singular effect on the shrubby plants which are 

 scattered over its surface. When suddenly overwhelmed by 

 the sand, they push up their tops until they emerge into day- 

 light; but the lower branches are all suffocated, and the 

 trunk, now converted into a root, sends off a new system of 

 branches, which direct their course downward through the 

 drift. In proportion as the sand accumulates, the plants 

 grow up, keeping their heads above the surface; but without 

 any apparent stem. A squall comes on, the bank is dispersed; 

 and the shrubs, now laid bare to the original level of the soil, 

 exhibit the grotesque appearance of so many Mangrove-trees. 



" Though the flowering season was pretty nearly over, I 

 observed a variety of plants still in blossom ; among others, 

 a large blue-flowered Aristea, a Dianthus, and several species 

 of Passerma, particularly the P. grandiflora and uniflora. 

 The greater part of the Isthmus is covered with shrubs of 

 this last genus, which are in much request in Capetown, as 

 the material usually employed to heat the bakers' ovens. 

 The genus Restio is likewise abundant, and communicates 

 somewhat of a glassy appearance to the surface; but these 

 plants, except during the earliest stage of their growth, are 

 rejected by cattle. 



" The diagonal extent of the Isthmus from Capetown to 

 Brinksfarm on the Eerste River, is about twenty-four miles. 

 Throughout this dreary expanse, not a house is to be seen, 

 nor an object to relieve the eye, or divert the mind from its 

 own reflections, except here and there a waggon in its pro- 



