62 
TRAVELS IN 
the fugar-tree, from the great quantity of faccharine 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 preferving 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 blofl^bms of the 
protea, cannot fail to attradt the notice of the pafl!enger, for a 
time, from every other objedl. 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, exifl:ing entirely on fugar and water. 
The mountains that form the eafliern boundary of the valley 
are eminently grand, but are deftitute, near their fummits, of a 
fhrub, or even a blade of grafs. They are a part of that great 
chain that ftretches from Falfe Bay to the northward, and to 
which a French naturalifl 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 vertebra of the 
back-bone of an animal. They confifl:, like the Table Moun- 
tain, of a number of fand-ftone ftrata, placed in a horizontal 
diredion, contain a great deal of iron, being in places perfedly 
red, and they reft upon beds of granite, clay, and flate. This 
range 
