334 
MINERALS. — THE VILLAGE. — HARVEST, 
21 Sept. 
in thickness, and often scarcely the tenth of an inch. Between these 
laminae, a beautiful kind of stone is found, sometimes of a blue and 
sometimes of a silky golden color, from the twentieth part of an 
inch to three inches thick. It is a species of Asbestos * in a less 
mature and flaxen state, with compact fibres of a flinty hardness, 
either transverse or oblique, straight or wavy. The fracture of these 
laminse is generally according to the direction of the fibres. When 
cut and polished, this stone exhibits a very beautiful appearance. A 
handsome kind of jasper, brown, striped with black, is to be found 
here ; and a green opal or pitch-stone. The strata of all these 
mountains are horizontal, and flat ; yet not unfrequently occur un- 
dulated. • • . . 
The Kraal, or village, stands on the sloping foot of the moun- 
tain (see the engraving at page 323) on the northern side, or rather at 
the head of a close valley, from which there are three outlets : one on 
the south-west, by which we came ; another on the north-east, leading 
to Klaarwater ; and the third opening southward, by which there is 
a direct road, of about fourteen miles, to the Gariep. 
From the village, this valley runs southward ; and along the 
middle of it, a winding brook takes a course between the mountains 
to the Great River. By the side of this rivulet, a few acres of wheat 
are cultivated ; and little channels have been made for leading the 
water out upon the land. A much greater extent of ground might 
be ploughed, if the Hottentots could be persuaded to convert the 
labor they bestow on hunting, to pursuits of agriculture. In good 
seasons, a harvest of eighty or ninety bushels of corn is obtained 
at the Kloof; but in the present year, in consequence of a species 
of mildew, not more than thirty were afterwards reaped, notwith- 
standing its present promising appearance. This mildew did the 
greatest damage in the lowest part of their field ; while, in the higher 
land, they reaped an abundant produce. 
* This substance, since my return to Europe, has been by some mineralogists, con- 
sidered as allied to that which is called Cat's-ei/e. 
