KLOOF AND KARROO. 



The remainder of our heavy luggage we left behind, 

 to be forwarded to our ultimate destination at the 

 earliest opportunity. 



All travellers by road from Graaff Reinet to Port 

 Elizabeth, except the transport riders, as the ox- 

 waggon carriers are here called, outspan at Uiten- 

 hage, stable their cattle there, and traverse the 

 eighteen miles from that place to the Bay by means 

 of the railway. From Uitenhage to Graaff Reinet 

 by road is about 162 miles. 



On a fine morning of South African spring,^ then, 

 we left behind us the busy town founded by the 

 sturdy settlers of 1820, and soon arrived at Uiten- 

 hage, after passing Zwartkops, the favourite resort 

 of the Port Elizabeth youth, where exists a thriving 

 boating club on the banks of the Zwartkops River. 

 Uitenhage, which is situated higher up this river, 

 on the slope of a hill, we found to be one of the 

 greenest and prettiest towns in the Colony. The 

 Winterhoek Mountains towering behind it, and here 

 and there rising into lofty peaks many thousand 

 feet in altitude,* form a magnificent background, and 

 the dark verdure of the dense bush veldt, with which 

 the neighbouring heights are clothed, is always a 

 pleasant relief to the eye. The river, unlike most 

 South African streams, is perennial, and the ample 

 water-courses which lead out from a fountain in the 

 neighbouring range and irrigate the town, the well- 

 grown trees lining the wide streets, the pleasant, 

 comfortable houses and spacious gardens, and the 

 roomy, old-fashioned hotel, all combine to render this 

 town a gracious and refreshing memory to the Cape 



* The Cockscomb, the tallest peak of the Winterhoek, is about 7,000 

 feet in height. 



