^^16 JOURNAL OF A 
the strength and patient abstemiousness of our horses, and reached 
Groenc'kloof early in the morning. 
23d. Brother Fritsch's birth-day was celebrated by the Hot- 
leiuots and the family, nearly in the same manner as mentioned 
page 101. In the afternoon, he accompanied me to some emi- 
nences, about two or three miles north of the settlement. Upon 
the first, a curiuus assemblage of large blocks of granite form a 
mass of a singular kind ; some, of a pyramidal form, stand up- 
right, others lie horizontally. The interstices between them are 
fdled with many kinds of bushes, and a variety of plants, inte- 
resting to a botanist. The second is called the Baviansberg, be- 
longing to the Groenekloof estate. Its summit is likewise co- 
vered with rocks and masses of "ranite, amono- high bushes. I 
was made particularly attentive to the great quantity of olive- 
bushes growing upon it, some of which have stems six or eight 
inches in diameter, and rise to twelve or more feet in height. A 
variety of the speckboom attracted my notice. The stem and 
boughs are easily broken, having hardly the consistency of a car- 
rot or parsnip; the leaf is light-green, Avaxy, oval, and about two 
inches by one in surface. The whole upper part of the hill or 
hills, of which the Baviansberg consists, is covered with a wilder- 
ness of every kind of bush and shrub, common to this country, 
forming an almost impenetrable thicket. In endeavouring to 
penetrate into it, to have a nearer view of some of the rocks, we 
soon found resistance made to our progress by thorny plants of 
various kinds, particularly by one, called Wach en beetgen, or 
" Stop a little," as it catches the stockings, or some other part 
of dress, and patience is required to extricate oneself from its 
barbed hold. Some thorns lie low enough to tear away shoe-strings 
or knee-bands, and others penetrate the skin. We were glad, af- 
ter much trouble, to get back into the road. 
On the Hartebeest Kopf hill, we found several of our people 
busily at work, sowing corn. Their manner of doing it is singu- 
lar. They first cast the corn upon the waste, then plough over 
