200 
TRAVELS IN 
of rivers and niost water-courses. The banks of earth or sand, 
that the current of waters has there deposited, have always 
their highest points down the stream. The reason is too ob- 
vious to require an explanation. The formation of such 
banks in the beds of rivers supplies also another observation 
that is generally found to take place on the grand scale. They 
continue to elongate at both extremities : the upper increases 
by the diminution of the stream, which it has divided and 
thrown on each side, and the lower b}'^ the eddy caused from 
the meeting again of this divided current. Analogous to this 
effect, the point of land between the confluence of two rivers 
has been observed, by a very able geographer, always to tra- 
vel downwards towards the sea ; and the point of land that 
divides a river, to travel upwards towards the source. 
The clusters of mountains which form what is usually called 
the Sneuwberg, are composed of sand-stone lying nearly in 
horizontal strata ; few- of them were observed to have the 
quartzose summits that prevailed in the great ranges near the 
Cape, and in that of Zwarteberg : but their bases, like these, 
rest on blue schistus. The soil of the Sneuwberg is generally 
clayey, frequently clodded together in indurated masses that 
appear ot a greasy texture to the eye, and such masses con- 
tained a large portion of dark foliated mica. The plants 
that chiefly prevailed on the elevated parts were tufts of long 
grass, small heathy shrubs, a beautiful mesembryanthemum 
with large clusters of small, bright red flowers, and another 
that seemed to differ in nothing from the former, except in 
the color of the petals, which were white. Besides these were 
also a small diosma, and two species of the iris with tall spikes 
