VEGETABLE AND MINERAL PRODUCTIONS. 303 



prevail during the summer months, have been found 

 very detrimental ; and the most sanguine are com- 

 pelled to reliquish the hope that Albany will ever 

 produce wine of such quality as would be worthy of 

 attention, considered as an article of export. 



Although a considerable portion of the district is 

 covered with wood it does not furnish useful timber 

 of any great variety, or in any considerable quantity. 

 The Geel-hout, Taocus elongatus or yellow wood, at- 

 tains to a considerable growth, and is used for all the 

 purposes of house-building ; it ig, however, greatly 

 affected by the variations of the atmosphere, and by 

 no means durable. The other woods most in request 

 and found in Albany, are red and white milk # , red 

 and white else, red and white pear, saffran, iron- 

 wood, assagai-wood, and sneeze-wood. Albany does 

 not present a very wide field for the research of the 

 geologist. Fossils, or minerals, of any scarcity or 

 celebrity, have never been found, nor are there any 

 mountains or hills of extraordinary elevation or for- 

 mation. Indications of iron ore may be seen in 

 every direction, but it is doubtful whether the quan- 

 tity of ore to be found in any one place, would pay 

 for collecting it. Manganese is also frequently 

 met with. Limestone is found in abundance near 

 the sea-coast. The principal quarries which have 



* For waggon work, the following are selected, fellies, white pear ; 

 spokes, assagai or red milk wood; axle tree, iron-wood; tongue, 

 saffran ; nave, yellow-wood. 



