SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
57 
place called Stickland, where Sir James Craig had caufed 
ftabling for feveral troops of dragoons, and ftone-buildings for 
the officers and men, to be erected, as a place of great import- 
ance in cafe of an attack from a powerful enemy. This ftation 
is at the fouth point of a range of hills called the Tigerberg or 
Tiger Mountain, that terminates, on this fide, the fandy ifth- 
mus. At the feet of the hills, and in the vallies formed by 
them, are feveral pleafant farms, with gardens well ftored with 
vegetables for the table, fruiteries, vineyards, and extenfive corn 
lands. As none of the latter are inclofed there is a general appear- 
ance of nakednefs in the country, which, if planted with foreft- 
trees, as the oak and the larch, and divided by fences, would 
become fufficiently beautiful, as nature in drawing the outline 
has performed her part. The fandy flat, of which the Tiger- 
berg forms the boundary, is applied to no ufe but that of fur- 
nifhing a part of the fupply of fuel for the town, and for the 
country people and butchers occafionally to turn their cattle 
upon. It is a prevailing opinion at the Cape, that this ifthmus, 
which now feparates the two principal bays, was once covered 
with the fea, making, at that time, the Cape promontory a com- 
plete ifland. The flatnefs and little elevation of the furface, 
the quantity of fand upon it, and the number of fhells buried 
in the fand, have been urged as the grounds for fuch a conjec- 
ture. If, however, fuch has been the cafe, and the retreat of 
the fea progreffive, it is an incalculable period of time fmce the 
two bays have been united. The furface is from 20 to 30 feet 
above the level of high -water mark; the fand upon it, except 
where it is drifted into ridges, is feldom three feet deep, and 
generally refts on fand-flone or hard gravel, bound together, 
I and 
