632 



DRUGS, NAliCOTICS, ETC. 



twenty gallons. Fire is applied to effect evaporation, during whicli tlie contents 

 of the pot are constantly stirred to prevent burning. The cooled liquor is then 

 poured into wooden cases of about three feut square by one foot deep, or into 

 goat or sheep skins, and thus is filled for the market. In the colony aloea 

 realises about 2^d. to 3|d. per pound. The Hottentots and Dutch boors employ 

 indiscriminately different species of aloe in the preparation of the drug. 



The Cape aloesy Avhich is usually prized the highest in the English market, is 

 that made at the Missionary institution of Bethelsdorp (a small village about 

 nine miles from Algoa Bay, and chiefly inhabited by Hottentots and their 

 missionary teachers). Its superiority arises not from the employment of a par- 

 ticular species of aloe, for all species are used, but from the greater care and 

 attention paid to what is technically called the cooking of the aloes ; that is, 

 the evaporation, and to the absence of all adulterating substances (fragments of 

 lime-stone, sand, earth, ttc), often introduced by manufacturers. 



Mr. Moodie, in his " Ten Tears' Eesidence in Southern Africa," 

 gives a somewhat similar account. 



Mr. Bnnbmy states that, about the neighbourhood of Gra- 

 ham's TowD, three large kinds of aloe are very abundant, v^diich 

 form striking and characteristic features of the scenery ; they 

 grow irregularly scattered over the parched and naked faces of 

 the hilis, but most abundantly among the low broken ledges and 

 knolls of sandstone rock, and are often seen spiring up above the 

 evergreen bushes in the ravines, and crowning the eliifs. One 

 kind grows to the height of a man. They are plants of a strange, 

 rigid, and ungracefid appearance, but with very handsome flowers, 

 which form tall and dense spikes, of a fine coral-red color in two 

 of the species (A. arhorescens and lineata?'), and of an orange 

 scarlet in the third {A. glaucescens ?). "When in blossom they are 

 conspicuous at a great distance, and might easily be mistaken, 

 when seen from far off, for soldiers in red uniforms. 



The importance of this indigeiious plant to the Cape Colony, 

 may be estimated from the following figures ; — • 



AMOUNT OF ALOES, THE PRODUCE OF THE COLONY, AND VAT HE THEREOF, EX- 

 PORTED IN THE TEARS ENDING 5tH JaNUARY 1841, 1842, AND 1846. 



lbs. £ 



1841 485,574 8,821 



1842 682,620 11,877 



1846 266,725 3,018 



exports AND VALUE FROM THE EASTERN PROVINCE. 



lbs. £ 



1835 68,042 474 



3 836 30,808 285 



1837 13,400 115 



1838 28,867 306 



1839 75,500 918 



1840 82,478 1,145 



1S41 220,214 4,271 



1842 283,305 5,003 



1844 318,035 3,225 



EXPORTS AND VALUE FROM THE WESTERN PROVINCE. 



lbs. £ 



1841 242,860 4,175 



1842 379,315 6,874 



1844 506,796 6,586 



