19 April, ISIL 
THE ROODEZAND PASS. 
137 
and repairs are farmed out by the government to individuals for a 
certain annual sum. Not far from this, over the mountains, there is 
another pass, now called the Omle Kloof (Old Pass), formerly tlie 
only road for waggons, although exceedingly steep, and carried over 
the very summit. The repairs of this have been quite neglected, 
and it is now made use of only by those who, to avoid the toll, 
drive their cattle over that way. 
The new pass is by far the best and the easiest, by which the 
country lying on the eastern side of the great western chain may be 
entered ; and it is very possible to make it still more so. It is one 
of the few chasms which completely divide the large ranges of 
mountains of the colony : though it is probable that there may exist 
several more than have been hitherto taken notice of This is the 
only cleft of this description in the western range; but in that 
which branches off from it at Winterhoek, and joins the great 
southern range at Swellendam, there are two, through which the 
Breede river at Mostert's Hoek, and the Hex river at the Kloof of 
that name, flow ; and which are both used by the colonists as passes. 
In the great southern chain, there is a very remarkable gap, through 
which the waters of the Great Karro escape, and form the Gaurits 
river ; but through this no practicable road has yet been made. 
Roodezands Kloof is a narrow winding defile of about three 
miles in length, just wide enough to allow a passage for the Little 
Berg river, on each side of which the mountains rise up abrupt and 
lofty. Their rocky sides are thickly clothed with bushes and trees, 
from their very summits down to the water, presenting a beautiful 
and romantic picture, adorned with every variety of foliage. Along 
the steep and winding sides, a road * has been cut out, which Ibllows 
the course of the river, at a height above it generally between fifty 
and a hundred feet ; in one part rising much higher, and in an- 
other, descending to the bottom, and leading through the river, 
which, at this time, was not more than three feet deep, although 
* See the Vignette at the end of the ninth chapter of this volume. 
