80 Account of the Fish River Bush, South Africa. 



cealed in the kloof he looks down into except that of their 

 lowing. Should he reach them, and capture them, he will 

 doubtless find the plunderers missing, and nowhere to be 

 seen ; yet the Caffres, and numerous too, may still be con- 

 cealed in the same kloof, secure from observation, while they 

 are aided by the black colour of their skins affording no con- 

 trast to the gloom of the recesses they have taken refuge in. 

 The only use of the more accessible parts of this impractica- 

 ble country is the more open and level parts constituting fine 

 pasturage for sheep — the bushes affording them abundance 

 of food, even should the grass fail in dry seasons, but then 

 the flavour of the mutton distinctly alters, though not b} r any 

 means to a disagreeable taste. Whether fossil coal will ever 

 be discovered in sufficiently large beds in the country as to 

 make it available for general use as fuel, remains to be seen; 

 but no fear need be entertained of the failure of firewood, for 

 which the majority of this bush is only serviceable, as we 

 have here a living coal-field unmerged as yet by a deluge. 

 The Bush is denser and more tree-like in the kloofs, and 

 opener on the more level and elevated grounds, w T here the 

 koodoo and the buck graze, and the wild pig ploughs the 

 ground for its food, as the open glades abound after rains 

 with abundance of sweet grass, and other such fresh vege- 

 table productions. This jungle is never seen to have grown, 

 either more extended or higher, in the memory of the inha- 

 bitants of this part of the country ; and no encroachments 

 are made on it except when grass fires on the hills burn away 

 its borders, which remain for a long time scarred and black. 

 It is composed of numerous kinds of plants, shrubs, and 

 trees, mostly partaking of the thorny prickly character, en- 

 tangled by their own branches, and by various creepers, and 

 rendered more impassable by thick underwood. Few trees, 

 however, are of such a size, or of such a kind, as to furnish 

 good timber, which is chiefly procured, for the use of the 

 eastern districts, from the forest kloofs of the Kat River dis- 

 trict, and those of the Cowie forest in the Mancazuna and 

 Kaja districts, but a good proportion of building timber, as 

 deals, is imported from England. Stunted Euphorbias grow 

 in abundance in every direction, as well in the kloofs as on 

 the koppies and flats, and the stately giant OandelabraEuphor- 



