SOUTHERN AFRICA. 371 
Fruit, good tobacco, and a limited number of cattle, are the pro- 
duce of the farms, at the feet of thefe mountains. At one place 
they were diftilling an ardent fpirit of no difagreeable flavor, 
from water-melons, the largefl I remember to have ever feen. 
The deep fandy plains were fucceeded by ftill deeper fandy 
hills, over which the waggon made but very flow progrefs, the 
wheels fmking to the axes every moment. Thefe hills, or 
rather mountains, of fand, extended near thirty miles beyond the 
point of the Picquet berg, before they attained their greateft ele- 
vation, where a very curious and grand fpedlacle prefented itfelf. 
Along the fummit, which was feveral miles in width, and the 
length from north to fouth bounded only by the horizon, rofe 
out of the coarfe chryfliallized fand and fragments of fandftone, 
a multitude of pyramidal columns, fome of which were feveral 
hundred feet in diameter, and as many in height ; thefe, viewed 
from a difl:ance, had the regular appearance of works of art. 
The materials were alfo fandftone, bound together by veins of a 
firmer texture, containing a portion of iron. The cavernous 
appearance of thefe peaked columns, that had hitherto withftood, 
though not entirely efcaped, the corroding tooth of time, and 
the viciflTitudes of devouring weather, proclaimed their vaft an- 
tiquity ; and the coarfe fand in which their bafes were buried, 
and the fragments of the fame material that were fcattered over 
the furface, and not yet crumbled away, were fufficiently de- 
monftrative that thefe pyramids had once been united, making 
at that time one connected mountain, fimilar to the great north- 
ern range. Out of the mouldered remains of thefe mountains 
had been formed the inferior hills of fand, while the finer parti- 
3 B 2 cles, 
