248 An Eight Bays 3 Ramble in Cape Colony. 



softer beauty of the town itself. We could scarcely form an 

 estimate of the width of the valley, which may perhaps be two 

 or three miles across ; but it appeared to be a flat, sandy plain 

 throughout, ornamented only by a low, shrubby vegetation, 

 which seemed in many places very sparse and thin. On the 

 opposite side to the Paarl Mountain runs the lofty chain of the 

 Drakenstein, displaying much grandeur of outline and variety 

 of configuration, but everywhere treeless, naked, and barren ; 

 apparently a series of precipitous crags and peaks of glittering 

 sandstone, with here and there a tall, snow-capped summit 

 standing out in bold relief from the deep azure of the distant 

 sky. To the right and left huge mountains still meet the view, 

 and the valley is almost entirely encompassed by these tower- 

 ing boundaries of rock. 



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Next morning, just as I had finished dressing, Hendrick 

 put his head into my room, and began to reproach me for 

 spending the " best part of the day in bed/'' the hour being 

 then only seven o' clock. Every man, they say, is mad on 

 some point, and Hendrick's peculiar lunacy is a fondness for 

 getting up in the middle of the night, and walking for several 

 miles before any other Christian or infidel has roused himself 

 from his nocturnal slumbers. Just such a feat had he been 

 performing on the occasion alluded to, and it was not to be 

 wondered at that his appetite was alarming in the extreme. 

 However, Johannes, the attendant-spirit of the hotel, was very 

 prompt in his measures on that morning, and ere long we sat 

 down to a sumptuous breakfast. As soon as Hendrick could 

 afford time from the eating and drinking for conversation, he 

 informed me that he had been half way up the mountain at 

 six o'clock, and he wound up with a proposition that we should 

 devote the rest of the day to more extended explorations in 

 the same direction. 



The Paarl Mountain is one of the celebrities of the place, 

 and so I was fain to agree to my companion's proposal, albeit 

 I felt uncommonly lazy, and the day promised to be exceedingly 

 hot ; a promise that was amply redeemed before the sun had 

 reached the zenith. However, after breakfast we started, and 

 soon had commenced the ascent, for the foot of the hill was 

 scarcely five hundred yards distant from the hotel. The path 

 upwards was well marked, clear of grass and bushes, but steep, 

 and almost slippery, the red earth having been worn quite 

 smooth by being constantly walked over, and baked hard by 

 the hot sun. As may be supposed, we paused frequently, for 

 in such weather the climb was rather hot and fatiguing ; and 

 during these halts we had ample opportunity for studying the 

 beautiful landscape afforded by the lovely Paarl, nestling in 



