4 TRAVELS IN 
consists in many places of double and sometimes treble ranges. 
The belt enclosed between it and the first chain is about the 
mean width of that between the first and the sea ; of a surface 
very varied, composed in some parts of barren hills, in others 
of naked arid plains of clay, known to the natives, and also to 
the colonists, by the name of Karoo ; and in others of choice 
patches of well watered and fertile grounds. The general sur- 
face of this belt has a considerable elevation above that of the 
first; the temperature is less uniform ; and from the nature af 
the soil, as well as the difficulty of access over the mountains, 
which are passable only in few places, this district may be 
considered as much less valuable tlmu tlie other^ 
The third range of mountains is the Nieuwveldt's Gebergte,. 
"which, with the second, grasps the Great Karroo or arid desert, 
"which is uninhabited by a human creature. This desert, making 
the third step or terrace of Southern Africa, is greatly elevated 
above the second ; is near 300 miles in length from east to 
west, and eighty in breadth ; is scarcely ever moistened by a 
shower of rain ; exhibits a surface of clay, thinly sprinkled 
over with sand, out of which afew shrivelled and parched plants 
liere and there meet the eye, faintly extending their half wi- 
thered fibres along the ground, and struggling, as it were, to 
preserve their existence against the excessive heat of one sea- 
son of the year and the severe frosts of the other. 
The country likewise aseendf« from the western coast towards 
the interior in successive terraces, of which the most elevated, 
called the Roggeveld, falls in with the kst-mentioned chain of 
mountains, the Nieuwveldt. The whole tract of country to 
