62 
TRAVELS IN 
the fugar-tree, from the great quantity of faccharlne juice con- 
tained in the bottom of its vafe-fhaped flowers. Many of the 
inhabitants are at the trouble of colleding this juice, which is 
fometimes ufed as a ftomachic, and fometimes boiled down to a 
thick fyrup for the purpofe of preferring fruits. Several 
fpecies of the gaudy-plumed certhia^ or creeper, come in alfo 
for their fhare, and at this feafon of the year may be feen in 
vaft numbers perching themfelves on the edge of the corollas, 
and fucking, with their long fickle-fhaped bills, " the honied 
" fweets." The iridefcent and brilliant colors of thefe beauti- 
ful little birds, fluttering about the variegated bloflxDms of the 
protea, cannot fail to attrad: the notice of the paffenger, for a 
time, from every other objeft. One fpecies in particular (the 
chalybea of Linnseus) commands attention to its clear melo- 
dious note. It fmgs delightfully in the cage, where it is kept 
■with difficulty, exifting entirely on fugar and water. 
The mountains that form the eaftern boundary of the valley 
are eminently grand, but are deftitute, near their fummits, of a 
flbrub, or even a blade of grafs. They are a part of that great 
chain that flretches from Falfe Bay to the northward, and to 
which a French naturalift has given the name of the Back-bone 
of the Earth ; a name, however, that is much more appropriate 
by their appearance than great extent. Their naked fummits 
are pointed and jagged, and divided like the vertebrae of the 
back-bone of an animal. They confift, like the Table Moun- 
tain, of a number of fand-ftone fl:rata, placed in a horizontal 
direction, contain a great deal of iron, being in places perfedly 
red, and they refl: upon beds of granite, clay, and flate. This 
range 
