130 
DANGEROUS ROADS. 
17 ApfiiL, 
we started at eight in the morning for an excursion to the top of 
Witsenberg, a mountainous ridge lying eastward of the village, at the 
distance of about an hour's ride. Over this ridge there is a road, 
which is frequented by the boors, as it is the only pass from the 
Bokkeveld to this side of the country. The ascent is so steep, and 
the road so rocky and dangerous, that any person, unused to Cape 
travelling, would feel inclined to doubt the possibility of its being 
practicable for any sort of vehicle; if the track of wheels did not 
attest to him that waggons had in reality passed that way, and that 
it was a path in daily use. Huge blocks of hard sand-stone pro- 
truded themselves in the very middle of the road ; and it is difficult 
to conceive how a waggon could pass over them, without being either 
shaken to pieces or overturned. The surface of the Bokkeveld being 
much higher than the valley of Roodezand, occasions the ascent on 
the eastern side of the Witsenberg Pass to be so inconsiderable, that 
farmers with loaded waggons find it practicable to come thence to 
Tulbagh ; but seldom attempt it in the contrary direction, and are 
therefore obliged to travel by another, and more indirect road. 
The inhabitants of this country, led by custom to view it as an 
ordinary affair, continue, at the hazard of their own lives, and of the 
destruction of their waggons and oxen, to make use of a road in this 
state, when, by the contribution of a trifling sum, and a few months' 
labor, with the assistance of some pounds of gunpowder to blow 
up the rocks, it might be rendered quite as safe as the pass at 
Hottentot-Holland. The road-makers of this colony seem to have 
imagined, that, by carrying their road as directly over the moun- 
tain as possible, they are following the best, because the shortest 
line : but certainly an oblique, although longer ascent, would, on ac- 
count not only of easier draught, but also of expedition, and even of 
an ultimate saving of expense, be the wisest mode. In making such 
roads, particular care should be taken, that no part of the ascent 
should have an elevation exceeding a certain number of degrees, up 
which the usual team of the country is able to draw a loaded waggon. 
From the top of this kloof, there is an unbounded prospect 
over the western half of the compass : Table Mountain^ Faardeberg, 
