FOREST-TREES. 55 



found shelter in the vast jungles of the Zuurberg and 

 Addo bush as late as the commencement of 1849. 



When the colonists first settled in Albany, they ^Yere 

 in the habit of carrying on a very lucrative traffic with 

 the chiefs of the neighboring Amaponda tribes, from 

 whom they obtained large quantities of ivory in barter 

 for beads, brass wire, and other articles of little value. 



Throughout the jungles of Albany and CafFraria, but 

 more particularly in the deep kloofs and valleys, many 

 varieties of noble forest-trees are found of considerable 

 size and great beauty, several of which are much prized 

 by the colonists on account of their excellence for wag- 

 on-work and house-building ; of these I may enumerate 

 the yellow-wood tree, the wild cedar, the stink-wood 

 tree, and the black and the white iron-wood tree. The 

 two latter are remarkable for toughness and durability, 

 and are much used in the axle-trees of wagons. The 

 primitive system of wooden axle-trees has of late years 

 been superseded in some districts by patent iron ones; 

 many, however, still use and prefer the old wooden 

 axle-trees, because wagons having those made of iron, 

 in steep descents, run too freely after the team, to the 

 injury of the two after-oxen ; and, further, because a 

 wooden axle, if broken, may be replaced in any remote 

 part of the country ; whereas a damaged iron axle-tree 

 can not be mended even by the skillful smiths through 

 out the towns and villages of the colony. The iron 

 axles are especially apt to be broken in cold frosty 

 mornings during the winter, when a wagon, immediate- 

 ly after being set in motion,- has to pass through rough 

 ground before the friction of the wheel has imparted to 

 it a certain degree of heat. 



On the following day a march of four hours brought 

 us to the bank of the Great Fish River, bavins: crossed 



