3o6 TRAVELS IN 
called the Giiarrie bosch, (Ro37ena ?) from whose benies, and 
those of the Ardidna, some of the farmers had made a sweetish 
wine, not unlike that which in Europe is procured from the 
Sambucus or alder. 
The forests of Plettenberg's bay, and the Autiniequas land^ 
had ceased to clothe the feet of the mountains from the point 
directly north of Mossel bay. Another clump now appeared, 
about twenty miles to the eastward of the Drosdy of Zwel- 
lendam, called the Grootvader s bosch. This wood, in the 
early stages of the colony, contained as great a variety of 
large timber trees as the others, but being so much nearer 
to the Cape, is now stripped of most of the wood that was^ 
valuable, 
From Grootvadcr^s bosch a beautiful valley stretches along 
the feet of the mountains, as far almost as the Drosdy. This 
village is composed of about twenty houses, scattered over 
a fertile valley, with a perpetual stream of water flowing 
down it. The habitation of the Landrost stands at the head 
of the valley ; is a very comfortable building, and has an ex- 
tensive garden attached to it, surrounded with plantations of 
oaks, and well stocked with a variety of fruits. 
The district of Zwellendam is composed chiefly of that 
tract of country lying between the Black mountains and the 
sea-coast, and stretches to the eastward, as far as the Cam- 
toos river, where GraafF Reynet first begins. The number of 
families contained in it are between five and six hundred ; 
and the whole population of whites amounts to about three 
