SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
201 
of flowers, one blue, the other yellow. The lower parts of the 
plains were charmingly embroidered with almost the whole 
tribe of syngenesious plants. Of these were most abundant 
various species of arctotis, othonna, ciiierariai aster, calendula^ 
athanasia, tanecetum, seuecio, and gnaphaliumj all of them, at 
this time, in the height of their bloom. 
But that which mostly discriminated the Sneuwberg from 
other parts of the country, was the total want of shrubbery. 
For miles together these elevated plains produced not a stick. 
We passed one kloof between two hills, in which stood about 
a dozen small mimosas ; and nothing could more strongly 
have marked the scarcity of bushes than the prodigious quan- 
tity of nests that these contained, made by different species 
of small birds, chiefly sparrows, finches, and grossbeaks. 
They were scattered over the branches as thickly as those of 
crows in a rookery ; and, what was still more remarkable, 
there stood in the same bush, with six or eight others, the 
nest of a hawk, containing two white eggs with small crimson 
specks. The bird, on the wing, appeared to be brown and 
white, and was named by the peasantry the white falcon. 
The nests of the small birds were mostly hedged round with 
thorns, and, like that of the magpie, had a cover built over 
them, and they had all narrow entrances through tubes or 
small holes. 
It is a remarkable fact, that there are many persons in 
Sneuwberg who have never seen a tree. Even the comman- 
dant, who for many years had traversed the whole country 
to the northward in expeditions against the Bosjesmans, had 
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