SOUTHERN AFRICA. 287 
country is grain ; and there is a magazine erected near the 
landing place, which is said to be capable of holding ten 
thousand bushels. 
To the eastward of Mossel Bay, and about eighteen miles 
on the Cape side of Plettenberg's Bay, there is a remarkable 
inlet, which may one day become an important station. It 
is called the Knysna. In the first volume, I observed that 
the tide set into it through a narrow passage or portal, as into 
a dock ; that this passage, though narrow, and not quito- 
clear of rocks, would admit of small vessels. Since that ob- 
servation was made on the spot, Mr. Callandar, a gentleman 
formerly belonging to the navy, has taken a particular survey 
of this arm of the sea, of which the annexed is a plan. He 
observes that the depth of water, and great extent, of the 
Knysna, running into the very centre of fine forests, render it 
a most eligible place for the building and repairing of ships. 
That vessels of five hundred tons and upwards, deeply laden, 
may pass the portal ; and that much larger might be built 
therein and sent out light, to be completed in Plettenberg's 
Bay. That the forests contain several different kinds of 
durable and well grown timber, fit for that valuable purpose, 
as well as abundance of masts and yards. That the native fir^ 
called geel hout (Ilex crocea), grows to upwards of sixty feet 
in length, and to five, six, and even eight feet in diameter ; 
which is also the case with the native oak, bearing an acorn 
exactly like that of Europe, but called here, on account of a 
strong and disagreeable smell which it emits when green, the 
stinkwood tree (Quercus Africana).. That the smell, however,, 
