An Eight Bays' Ramble in Cape Colony, 253 



showed many evidences of civilization that we were not pre- 

 pared to meet with in such a wilderness ; there were pictures 

 and periodicals, and actually one of the latest numbers of the 

 London Times, as well as several cabinets of insects tastefully 

 arranged and in beautiful preservation. 



We returned to Wellington the next morning, where we 

 were detained by rain for a day and a half. 



ifc sU s!^ jfj nI^ ^ j|j 



At Wellington we heard a good deal of a lake in the Tul- 

 bagh district, called Yogelsvlei, which was said to abound in 

 wild-fowl, and after making due allowance for exaggeration on 

 the part of our informants, we decided that it would be worth 

 our while to pay this noted sheet of water a short visit. 

 Accordingly, having re -chartered old Howard's cart for three 

 days more, away we went. 



After a pleasant drive of about fifteen miles over a better 

 cultivated country than I had yet seen at the Cape, we arrived 

 at Retief s Hotel, close to Koopman's River. This stream is 

 a tributary of the Great Berg, and I believe it rises in the 

 Tulbagh range of mountains. At low water it is an insigni- 

 ficant brook, but when full, they told us, its passage is some- 

 times an impossibility without a boat. The hotel is a solitary 

 building, kept by a Cape Dutchman and his brother. It is a 

 snug little place, and the proprietors were most civil and 

 obliging; everything that they could possibly do for our 

 comfort was done freely and gladly, with genuine hospitality, 

 and their charges were moderate in the extreme. 



In front of the hotel, at the distance of about a quarter of a 

 mile, runs the Great Berg River, and considerably beyond it, 

 the bold and picturesque mountain called Riebeck's Casteel 

 forms a most imposing object. In the opposite direction, 

 three or four miles behind the house, are the noble, but 

 barren-looking hills of the Tulbagh range, the tall peak of the 

 Winterberg * rising above them all, in the left distance, and 

 flashing back the sunlight from its snow- covered summit. 

 Near the foot of these mountains lies the Yogelsvlei, which, 

 however, is invisible from the hotel, owing to the lowness of 

 its position. 



At the time of our visit the place was gay with multitudes 

 of bright-hued flowers, principally the blossoms of many genera 

 of the world-renowned Cape bulbs : Oxalidce of several kinds ; 

 the scarlet blood-flower (Hasmanthus coccineus) ; the South 

 African tulip (Homer ia collina) i a lovely, but most poisonous 

 plant, resembling somewhat in shape our common daffodil; 

 ixias and gladiolas of many species ; Babianai ; and the mag- 

 nificent trumpet-hly (Richardia JSthiopica). 



* 6,840 feet above the sea level. — Sail. 



