S6 
TRAVELS IN 
established. They would be very glad to find a market for 
their grain at a fixed contract price, even as low as two shill- 
ings and eight-pence for a Winchester bushel delivered at 
Zwart-kop's bay. The wheat of the Cape is a large full grain, 
weighing usually from sixty-one to sixty-five pounds a bushel. 
Immediately after the capture, a small cargo was sent to 
Europe, which sold in Mark-lane market at a higher price 
than the best English wheat that appeared on the same day. 
'Jlie valley through which the Zwart-kop's river meanders 
m its course to the bay, is a fertile tract of country, the 
greater part of it capable of being laid under water. It is 
twenty miles in length and between two and three in width. 
The hills, that on each side rise with an easy slope, exhibit 
an unbroken forest of evergreen plants holding a middle rank, 
in point of size, between shrubs and trees. The tree crassula, 
several species of the aloe, of the euphorbia, and other succu- 
lent plants, were also mixed with the shrubbery, and grew 
with remarkable exuberance. The whole of this beautiful 
valley is divided between four families, each having not less 
than five thousand acres of land independent of the enclosing 
hills covered with wood. Yet not satisfied with the possession 
of this enormous quantity, they have made several attempts 
to burn down the forest, that the cattle might more conve- 
niently come at the tufts and patches of sweet grass that 
abound within it. Hitherto all their endeavours have proved 
fruitless. The moment that the succulent plants, particularly 
the great aloes and euphorbias, became heated, the expanded 
air within them bursts open the stems, and their juices, rush- 
ing out in streams, extinguished the fire. 
