88 THE GREAT MOUNTAIN-PASSES. 9 April, 
they ever received at Fortuintje, having, most probably, been thrown 
away the moment after we rode off. * 
Having passed the Kloof, I was surprized to find so little descent 
on the eastern side : here the country must, therefore, lie at a great 
elevation above Hottentot-Holland. 
The districts situated, with respect to the metropolis, beyond 
these mountains, and also their inhabitants and produce, are often 
distinguished in a general way by the word overbergsch (tramontane.) 
Over the whole colony the words boven (upper), and bovenlaiid, are 
used to signify those parts of it which are nearer to Cape Town, and 
often Cape Town itself; while onder (under), and onderveld, are the 
terms applied in contradistinction. These are colonial expressions 
in constant use in a great variety of cases, frequently even for indi- 
cating only the situation of a neighbouring farm-house. 
This pass, and two or three others farther northward in the same 
chain of mountains, may be regarded as the great portals by which 
the interior of Africa may be entered on the side of the Cape of 
Good Hope ; the country on the west of this range being as it were 
only the vestibule. The Hottentot-Holland and Roodezand Kloofs are 
the two principal passes, by which waggons cross these mountains : 
the former leading to all the districts lying along the southern coast, as 
Swellendam, George, Uitenhage, and Albany ; and the latter to the 
Tarka, Graaffreynet, the Karro, and Roggeveld. The Elands Kloof, 
Pikeniers Kloof and Kardouws Kloof three passes of inferior note, are 
* This pass was more carefully investigated on a subsequent occasion (Maixh 29. 
1815) ; and among the plants collected at that time, the following, already well known to 
botanists, may here be noticed : 
Olea Capensis Protea speciosa 
Phylica huxifolia Hydrocotyle tridentata 
Erica taxifolia , Cliffbrtia trifoliata 
Aulax umbellata Lobelia pinifolia 
Pelargonium angulomim Protea sceptrum-Gustavianum, of Sparrman 
Rhus cuneifolium ' Erica glutiimsa 
Erica Plulcenetii Erica fascicularis, 
Brunia nodiflara 
