I20 
TRAVELS IN 
over the fire, and ftirred round with a foft ochraceous ftone, It 
takes the confiftence of tar, and in that ftate is confidered as an 
excellent greafe for the axes of their waggon wheels. 
We pafled, on the fourteenth, a narrow opening, called the 
Poort, through a long range of hills running eaft and weft, and 
extending each way beyond the limitation of fight. The ap- 
proach to the chafm was one of the moft beautiful things 
imaginable. For the fpace of three or four miles, on the north- 
ern fide, the road ferpentized through a tall fhrubbery diverfi- 
fied with the choiceft plants of Southern Africa. Among thefe 
were now in the height of their bloflbms a great variety of the 
crajfula^ a beautiful fcarlet cotelydon, many fpecies of the aloe, 
fome throwing out their clufters of flowers acrofs the road, and 
others rifing above the reft in fpikes of blood-red bloflbms not 
lefs than fifteen feet in height, African briony clafping every 
bufh with its vine-like leaves, and a beautiful plant refembling 
the jeflamine, whofe clufters of white flowers fcented the whole 
country. The road through the fhrubbery was compofed of a 
fmooth, yellowifli, fandy earth without a ftone, and had in no 
part the length of a hundred yards in a ftraight line. The 
Riet berg^ or Reed mountain, in the back ground, bluflied to 
the very fummit with a wood of tall fmooth-ftemmed aloes 
bearing fpikes of pink-colored flowers. 
Having pafled the kloof, or poort, we crofled a plain of fix 
or feven miles in width, and encamped on the Wolga fonteyn at 
the feet of another range of hills parallel to the Riet berg, and 
more thickly covered with fruitefcent plants. Here we ftarted 
- a herd 
