CORN DESTROYED BY RAIN. 317 



scattered on each side, with clumps of trees sur- 

 rounding the white-washed cottages to protect them 

 from the heat, and the river winding its silent course 

 beneath, contributed to diversify and heighten the 

 beauty of the prospect immediately beneath the 

 mountain. 



The Lange Kloof, on which we had now entered, 

 was an extensive valley, from either side of which, 

 rose a chain of bare and rugged hills for many miles. 

 We idtspanned at a farm at which five brothers 

 resided with their families, and here we laid in a 

 stock of fresh provisions, obtaining fowls at sixpence, 

 and ducks at ninepence each. The cultivated portions 

 of this district exhibited great fertility ; which was to 

 be attributed more to the salubrity of the climate and 

 the natural fecundity of the soil, than to the skilful or 

 laborious exertions of man. 



We found the farmers all busily engaged in 

 housing their corn, of which they had reaped a 

 plentiful crop ; but the heavy showers which had 

 recently fallen had so materially injured it, that in 

 many places they had been compelled to pull down 

 their stacks, the rain having penetrated through the 

 slight thatch with which they had attempted to pro- 

 tect them. We heard that the whole crop of one 

 farmer in the neighbourhood, which he had cut, but 

 which the sudden outbreak of the storm had pre- 

 vented him from gathering in, was reduced to a heap 

 of manure as it lay upon the ground. Another in- 



