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SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
flowers, shrubs, and trees, studded everywhere 
(as they appear) with birds of the gaudiest 
plumage : all here tend to entrance the Euro- 
pean visitant, and transfix him with admiration. 
To the naturalist this country becomes a 
perfect paradise ; for, whichever way he turns, 
novelties meet him at every step ; whilst the 
charm of his discoveries is more than doubly 
enhanced by the multiplicity of objects, daily 
making their appearance, which hitherto were 
unknown to him. 
The geological structure of Kaffraria, (under 
which title is included and known the whole 
tract of country lying along the South-eastern 
coast of Africa, between the old Cape Colony, 
the new one of Natal, and the Sovereignty or 
Dutch Free-State) is of a diversified character, 
but it does not differ much from other parts of 
the continent, except in the vast preponderance 
of iron-stone. This is doubtless the cause of 
the frequency and violence of the thunder storms 
in these parts ; which, in awful grandeur or des- 
tructive consequences, are nowhere surpassed. 
The basaltic formation here and there ap- 
pears above ground, and thus diversifies the 
character of the florae; the plants growing 
over the surface of these rocks, being of a more 
profuse and varied character than elsewhere. 
This formation is first discernible to the geo- 
