SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
359 
Groene kloof is a divifion of the Cape diftri£t, confifting of 
feveral clumps of fmall hills, that crofs the fandy flip, extending 
along the weftern coaft. On the dales that lie within thefe hills 
are copious fprings of good water, and excellent pafturage for 
cattle and horfes. None of the ground near the Cape can be 
confidered as remarkably productive in grain ; it requires ma- 
nure, or to lie fallow for two or three years, and even then 
affords nothing that in England would be confidered as a crop. 
It appears from the returns of grain, which the farmers are 
obhged to deliver annually to government, that the average 
produdt is under tenfold. In places clofe to the town, the 
returns are much lefs, the ground being worn out by a con- 
tinual fuccefllon of crops of grain. 
Among the hills of Groene kloof, are confiderable numbers of 
Steenboks, Duykers, and Reeboks, and a few Hartebeefts, but 
frequent vifits of fportfmen from the Cape have made them very 
fhy. Hares, korhaens, grous, and partridges, were fufficiently 
plentiful. Various fpecies of the liliaceous tribe, particularly of 
the amaryllis, and other bulbous rooted plants, were now in 
bloom, but the long drought had left little verdure on the fides 
of the hills. At this feafon of the year that refrefliing tint is 
only to be looked for in the neighbourhood of fprings and 
rivulets. 
The houfe of Slabert, the T'ea fo7iteyn^ is the next ufual ftage 
beyond Groene kloof. As this family holds a diftinguiflied 
place in the page of a French traveller in Southern Africa, the 
veracity of whofe writings have been called in queftion, curiofity 
was 
