SOUTHERN AFRICA. 5 
necessary. Every thing, however, was in readiness on tlie 
day fixed for our departure, though it was night before the 
"waggons left the town ; and the oxen were so miserably bad 
that, before they had proceeded three miles, two of tliem 
dropped in the yokes and were obliged to be left behind. In 
seven hours they had advanced only about fifteen miles, to a 
place called Stickland, where Sir James Craig had caused 
stabling for several troops of dragoons, and stone-buildings 
for the ofi[icers and men, to be erected, as a point of great 
importance in the event of an attack from a powerful enemy. 
This station is at the south point of a range of hills called 
the Tigerberg or Tiger Mountain, which terminate, on the 
Cape side, the sandy isthmus. At the feet of the hills, and 
in the vallies formed by them, are several pleasant farms, 
having gardens well stored with vegetables for the table, fruit- 
eries, vineyards, and extensive corn lands. As none of the 
latter are enclosed, the countr}^ presents a general appearance 
of nakedness, which, if planted with forest-trees, as the oak 
and the larch, and divided by fences, would become sufli- 
ciently beautiful, as nature in drawing the outline has per- 
formed her part. The sandy flat, of which the Tigerberg 
forms the boundarj^, is applied to no other use than that of 
furnishing a part of the supply of fuel for the town, and as a 
place for the country people and butchers occasionally to 
turn their cattle upon. 
It is a prevailing opinion at the Cape, that this isthmus, 
which now separates the two principal bays, was once covered 
with the sea, making, at that time, the Cape promontory a 
complete island. The flatness and little elevation of the sur- 
