208 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. vni. 



eagerly consumed a number of small sheaves of oats, called 

 oat-hay, which is the usual provender for horses in the colony. 



At the same farm-house where we procured the oats we 

 also obtained bread and milk, and excellent grapes, for our own 

 breakfast. I afterwards went to one of the large barns or out- 

 houses near, into which a number of Caffre and Fingoe women 

 were carrying on their heads baskets of grapes ; and on en- 

 tering the place saw, towards one end, a large heap of bunches 

 of fine ripe grapes, which the master informed us were to be 

 used in making brandy. The grapes are first put into large 

 vats or bags, formed by attaching a bullock's hide by its edges 

 and four poles, and leaving it to sink down in the middle. I 

 thought, as I looked at the heap, that such fine, ripe, juicy 

 looking fruit might have been appropriated to a better 

 purpose. 



The place where the grapes grew was at some distance, but 

 close to this lone dwelling, on the border of the wide desert, I 

 was delighted to find a little spot inclosed as a flower-garden, 

 in which lilies, gladioluses, balsams, cockscombs, stocks, pinks, 

 passion flowers, very stunted dahlias, and other flowers, as 

 well as culinary herbs, were growing. 



The features of the country, in the direction opposite to the 

 desert, were characterised by that vastness, massive solidity, 

 and grandeur which had marked all the most striking por- 

 tions of African scenery that I had yet seen, and which made 

 the picturesque mountains and valleys of Mauritius appear, 

 in comparison, only like charming little miniature models of 

 nature. The Camdeboo mountains lay a few miles distant in 

 a northerly direction, presenting, at different parts along the 

 range, the perpendicular wall-like summit and long flat top 

 so peculiar to this part of Africa ; and beyond these, to the 

 north-east, the loftier range of the Sneuwberg stretched far 

 away in the distant horizon. 



Soon after noon we resumed our journey, and often resting 



