282 
TRAVELS IN 
inches in length. The same kind of birds ia Northern Eu- 
rope, having nothing to apprehend from monkies» snakes, and 
other noxious animals, construct open nests. Is this difference 
the effect of mere accident or of design ? 
From the Bavian's river we made an excursion, for the se- 
cond time, into the Kaffer country, where we ascended the 
Kaka, the continuation of the first range of mountains in the 
Sneuwberg. The summit was broken into hill and dale, and 
the surface beautifully varied with patches of green grass, and 
clumps of tall forest trees. The thick and sombre foliage of 
the woods, throwing their deep shadows into the hollows, con- 
trasted with the bright and lively green knolls of grass, pro- 
duced a succession of gleams and glooms that were extremely 
beautiful and pleasing. No part of Africa had yet afforded 
such grand, picturesque, and diversified scenery, as this com- 
mencement of a double chain of mountains, and the interme- 
diate forests, of which the eye, looking easterly, could discover 
no end. The trees that were most plentiful were two species of 
the Gee/-7iow^, or Yew, some of which were from twenty to thirty 
feet in circumference, and sixty to seventy feet in length. 
The summit of the Kaka mountain commanded a most ex- 
tensive view of the Kaffer countrj^, as far as the sea-coast to 
the south, and beyond the residence of the king to the south- 
east. The level plains over which the Kat and the Kaapna 
are seen to serpentize, those plains where once the Ghonaqua 
nation tended their flocks and herds, now desolate, were laid 
as it were at the feet of the spectator. 
8 
