10 
TRAVELS IN 
woods of it ftretch along the feet of the eaftern fide of the 
Table Mountain, planted folely for fuel. The Conocarpa, an- 
other fpecies of Protea, the Kreupel boom of the Dutch, is alfo 
planted along the fides of the hills : its bark is employed 
in tanning leather, and the branches for fire wood. The 
grand'iflora^ fpec'tofa mellifera^ different fpecies of the fame 
genus, grow every where in wild luxuriance and are colleded 
for fuel, as are alfo the larger kinds oi Ericas or hesLths, phjl/icasy 
Brunias, polygalas^ the Olea Copejifis^ Euclea racemofa^ Sophora^ 
and many other arboreous plants that grow in great abundance 
both on the hills of the peninfula, and on the fandy ifthmus 
that conneds it with the continent. The article of fuel is fo 
fcarce that a fmall cart load of thefe plants fells in the town 
from five to feven dollars, or twenty to eight-and-twenty 
fhillings. In moft families a Have is kept exprefsly for col- 
lecting fire wood. He goes out in the morning, afcends the 
fteep mountains of the peninfula, where waggons cannot ap- 
proach, and returns at night with two fmall bundles of faggots, 
the produce of fix or eight hours hard labour, fwinging at the 
two ends of a bamboo carried acrofs the fhoulder. Some 
families have two and even three flaves, whofe fole employment 
confifts in climbing the niountains in fearch of fuel. The 
expence of a few faggots, whether thus collefted or purchafed 
by the load, for preparing victuals only, as the kitchen alone 
has any fire place, amounts, in a moderate family, to forty or 
fifty pounds a-year. 
The addition to the inhabitants of five thoufand troops, and 
a large fleet ftationed at the Cape, has increafed the demand 
for 
