SOUTHERN AFRICA. 43 
the soap, that is used in the colon}', is made. These ashes, 
when carefully collected from the burnt plants, are a pure 
white caustic alkali, a solution of which, mixed up with the 
oily fat of the large broad tails of the sheep of the colony, 
and boiled slowly for five or six days, takes the consistency 
and the quahty of an excellent white soap. This species of 
salsola grows in almost every part of Southern Africa, but par- 
ticularly on those plains known by the name of Karroo, and 
in such abundance that, supposing the plant, after being 
cut down and burnt, to be reproduced in five years, the quan- 
tity of soda, or barilla, that might annually be made from 
the ashes would be sufficient, beside serving the colony, for 
the whole consumption of Great Britain : and as enormous 
sums of money have always been, and continue to be, drawn 
from England to pay the imports of this article, it may per- 
haps be considered as an object worthy of further inquir3\ 
According to the present system, however, of letting out the 
government farms, and the high price of labor, none of the 
country-people would find it worth their consideration as an 
article to bring to market. The Hottentots, indeed, might 
be encouraged to prepare it ; but the great distance from 
Cape Town, the only market in the colony, and the badness 
of the roads, will always operate against a supply of the na- 
tural products of the country being had there at any reason- 
able rate. Another shrubby plants, with glaucous spear- 
shaped leaves, is generally found among the salsola, the ashes 
of which also give a strong alkaline lie ; but the soap made 
from this plant is said to have a bluish color, and to be of 
a very inferior quality to that made from the former. The 
plant was not in flower ; but it appeared to be the atriplex 
albicans, a kind of orache. 
G 2 
