92 SOME BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA 



to property. Small wonder then, after all this rain, that 

 passengers from the incoming steamers should be loud 

 in their praise of the town as it appeared from the sea, 

 in its setting of varied green. Nor were the atmos- 

 pheric conditions alone disturbed, for as every one 

 knows, the uncertainty with regard to war at that time 

 hung over the Colony like a dark cloud. In time the 

 weather cleared, the rains seeming to have exhausted 

 thernselves early in September, and from the town and 

 harbour was visible once more the clear-cut face of 

 Table Mountain. Perhaps in no country are rains 

 more partial in apportioning themselves than in Cape 

 Colony, some districts receiving a continuous down- 

 pour, while others within a distance of fifty miles or so 

 are parched for want of water. 



Much has been written about South Africa within 

 the last few months, and I will therefore confine my 

 remarks to the immediate districts which bear on the 

 subject in hand. 



Along the north shore of False Bay, keeping the 

 extensive tract of ground known as the Cape Flats on 

 the left hand side, runs a short line of railway from 

 Cape Town to Sir Lowry's Pass station. Here the 

 line ends, for the range of mountains called the Hotten- 

 tot's Holland's Mountains forms a natural barrier that 

 is only to be overcome by latter - day engineering. 

 These mountains, one of the limitations of the old 

 Dutch settlement in the early days of the Colony, run 

 out to sea in a line parallel to the range forming the 

 Cape Peninsula, and constitute one of the boundaries 

 of False Bay. 



Post carts take up the duty of the railway at Sir 



