SOUTHERN AFRICA. 319 
disengaged, by some simple or combined action of the air 
and the saline bodies in the sand, that species of aeriform 
acid contained in chalk, which late experiments have slicwn 
to be the kind of aliment most congenial to the nature 
of plants. 
Notwithstanding the fertility of the ground, and the facility 
of tillage, an inconsiderable quantity of grain is produced, 
owing to the distance and the heavy roads to the only mar- 
ket in the colony. Draught oxen are scarce and dear in the 
neighbourhood of the Cape, and vast numbers are annually 
destroyed, in transporting the articles of necessary consump- 
tion to Cape Town. There is a curious paragraph in the 
Minutes of the Proceedings in the government of Van Ri^- 
beck, the founder of the colony, which shews the extreme 
scarcity of cattle in the earl 3'^ stages of the settlement, before 
some daring adventurers penetrated beyond the great ranges 
of mountains. It states, that the captains of four English 
ships having arrived in the bay and presented the governor 
and council with pipes, glasses, brandy, and other acceptable 
articles, the governor in council resolved, in order to shew 
that the Hollanders were not wanting in gratitude and ci- 
vility, that the ox belonging to the Company, which had 
died, not of disease, but from hunger, should be divided 
into four quarters, and that one Should be sent to the captain 
of each ship. 
The bay of St. Helena is about fifteen miles to the northward 
of Hootjes bay. It resembles in shape the Table bay, than 
wliich it is a little more open and exposed to the northerly 
