SOUTIiEkN AFRICA. 32;; 
to a pleonafm to fay, that the richell; foil will invariably be 
found where vegetation is mod abiindant and mod luxuriant | 
the foil and the plant adting reciprocally as cauie and effe£t. 
Hence, if climate were entirely out of the queftion. we fliould 
have an infallible criterion for determining the quality of foil 
in any country by the abundance or fcarclty, the luxuriance or 
poverty, of the native plants. Meafuring the foil of the Cape 
fettlement by this fcale, it would be pronounced among the 
pooreft in the known v/orld ; lor I may fafely venture to fay, 
that feven parts in ten of the above mentioned furface are, for 
a great part of the year, and fome of them at all times, deftitute 
of the lead appearance of verdure. The upper regions of all 
the chains of mountains are naked maifes of fanddone; the 
valleys at their feet are clothed with grafs, with thickets, and 
fometimes v;ith impenetrable forefts. The inferior hills or 
knolls, whofe furfaces are generally compofed of loofe fragments 
of fandftone, as well as the wide fandy plains that conned them, 
are thinly ftrewed over v/ith heaths and other flirubby plants, 
exhibiting to the eye aU uniform and dreary appearance. In 
the lowed parts of thefe plains, vv^here the waters fubfide andj 
filtering through the fand, break out in fprings upon the furface, 
Vegetation is fomewhat more luxuriant. In fuch fituations the 
farm-houfes are generally placed ; and the patches of cultivated 
ground contiguous to them, like the Oafes in the fandy defertSj 
may be confidered as fo many verdant iflands in the midd of a 
boundlefs wade j ferving to make the furrounding wilderaefs 
more dreary by comparifon. Of fuch plains and knolls is the 
belt of land compofed that lies between the fird chain of moun» 
tains and the fea-coads. 
The 
