SOUTHERN AFRICA. 199 
it\g to the northward, without a swell, farther than the eye 
could command. Eight miles beyond this pass we en- 
camped for the night, where the weather was more raw and 
cold than we had hitherto experienced it on the Sneuwberg. 
The thick clouds being at length dissipated by the sun, the 
Compassberg appeared at a distance white near the summit 
with snow. 
The division of Sneuwberg comprehends a great extent of 
country. The moment we had ascended from the plains be- 
hind Graaff Reynet to those more elevated of Sneuwberg, the 
difference of the face of the country and its natural produc- 
tions were remarkably striking. One of the characters of the 
African mountains is that of having one of their sides steep 
and lofty, whilst the opposite one gradually slopes off in an 
incliaed plane. The Compassberg is the last to the north- 
ward that presents a bold and high front to the southern hori- 
zon. Beyond this the northern aspects of the mountains are 
the highest^ 
It was an. observation sufficiently striking, and which must 
have occurred to every one who has-been the least attentive tp 
the mountains and livers of South' Africa, that the ascent of 
the former invariably increases with the descent of the latter; 
or, in other words,, that the highest sides of the mountains face 
that quarter towards which the rivers flow,, whilst their sloping 
sides are opposed to the streams. That, such, indeed, are the 
appearances, which ought to present themselves on the sur- 
face of every country of Neptunian origin, is conformable to 
what may every day be observed, on a small scale,, in the beds 
