202 
TRAVELS IN 
never seen a wood till he came with us, on the present jour- 
ney, into the KafFer country. Very few of the houses have 
a shrub, much less a tree of any sort, standing near them; 
The violent winds, more than the intensity of the cold, injure 
the growth of plants ; for it is positively asserted that even 
oaks, which in Europe bear almost any degree of cold, will 
not grow on the Sneuwberg. 
The fuel chiefly used by the inhabitants is the dung of ani- 
mals, which accumulates in the places where their cattle are 
nightly pent up, to prevent their destruction by wolves and 
other beasts of prey, and their depredation by Bosjesmans. 
In the spring of the year this material is dug out in long 
squares, as turf is cut from the bog in the northern parts of 
England ; which are spread out to dry, and then, like turf, 
are piled up in stacks for the winter's consumption. At all 
the farm-houses we passed they were busily employed in cut- 
ting or in stacking their fuel. 
The causes that operate against the growth of trees and 
shrubs extend not, however, to the gramineous plants. Grain 
of all kinds is fully as productive here as in the lower districts ; 
but the crops are generally a month, and sometimes two months 
later, when they are exposed to thunder-storms, which are 
exceedingly violent in these mountains, and almost always 
attended by heavy showers of hail. The finest crops have 
sometimes been completely destroyed by these storms in the 
course of half an hour. The return, however, of the season 
when these happen being tolerably constant, commencing 
generally with the new year, they can in most years prevent 
