SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
"9 
diftrift is called the Zwart Ruggens or black ridges. Except 
the plain of our encampment there fcarcely occurred, in the 
diftance of forty miles, a hundred yards of level ground. The 
roads over the ridges were execrably bad, conftantly afcending 
or defcending, covered with large fragments of loofe ftones, or 
carried over ledges of firm rock. 
Though vegetation in general was thinly fcattered over the 
ftony furface, and languid, fome of the eminences were tolerably 
well clothed with a fpecies of euphorbium, whofe luxuriance of 
growth {hewed it to be congenial to the foil and the fituation. 
The leaves were ere<ft, hexangular, and armed with a row of 
double fpines along each edge. It appeared to be the fame 
fpecies of which Mr. Patterfon has given a drawing ; but it is 
not here confidered as a poifonous plant, as he has reprefenied 
it, though a very obnoxious one, as it prevents the cattle from 
picking up any little herbage that may be growing about its 
roots. Another fpecies of euphorbium, fcarcely rifmg above 
the furface of the ground, is here very common. From a cen- 
tral corona iffue, as fo many radii, a number of round imbri- 
cated leaves, containing, like all the reft of this genus, a white 
milky fluid : the central part of one of thefe plants inclofes not 
lefs than a pint. The oxen pierce the corona with their inci- 
five teeth, and drink the milk ; and it is the opinion of the far- 
mers that they become fat upon it. Though lefs aftringent 
than the fluid that is ufually produced by this tribe of plants, it 
pofl^efles that quality to a very confiderable degree j yet no fort 
of inconvenience is known to attend the ufe of it to the cattle. 
The peafantry colledt it for another purpofe. When warmed 
over 
