188 THE CAPE COLONY. 



"Snowy Mountains." Of these the loftiest summit is the Compass 

 Berg, 10,000 feet in altitude. The second chain, the Black Moun- 

 tains, though not so lofty are more massive, and, in truth, composed 

 of two or three chains in close juxtaposition. The third, or last 

 chain, in proceeding from south to north, varies from eighteen to 

 fifty-four miles, enlarging towards the west. 



The plain or terrace between the Black and the Snowy Mountains 

 is much loftier than the two other steps by which we descend to the 

 southern extremity of the continent. The lowest terrace, bordering 

 on the sea, is well-watered and fertile. The second, or central 

 terrace, consists of fertile districts, equally well watered, but inter- 

 sected by vast dry deserts, called (from a Hottentot word) Karroos. 

 The third terrace, commonly designated the Great Karroo, at the base 

 of the Roggeveld and Nieuveld chain, is 300 miles in length, 80 miles 

 in breadth, and 2000 feet above the sea-level. Its soil, says a writer 

 in the Quarterly Review, presents throughout its whole extent, for 

 the greater portion of the year, not a trace of vegetation. These 

 gloomy solitudes assume a character of picturesque grandeur through 

 their very wildness of desolation. The scene might convey to a 

 fanciful mind the dreary image of a ruined world, where the witches 

 and demons of Goethe's Walpurgis-Night might fitly celebrate their 

 revels.- 



" And through the cliffs with ruin strewn, 

 The wild winds whizz, and howl, and moan.''* 



During the . long dry summer months, the smallest birds would not 

 find wherewithal to sustain their existence in these sombre deserts, 

 whose solemn silence not even the murmur of an insect interrupts. 



Yet these regions, deprived of springs and running waters, are 

 not always sterile deserts, are not always desolate plains. In the 

 dry season, the soil, a yellow ferruginous clay, acquires the hardness 

 of brick, just as if it had been exposed to the fire of a furnace ; but 

 the roots and bulbs, protected by a ligneous covering, resist the 

 devouring heat. The first rains revive them ; they put forth their 

 * Goethe's " Faust," translated by Theodore Martin, p. 202. 



