SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
ing all in the direction of east to west. The in- 
termediate plains are in a great measure covered 
with a hard impenetrable clay, sprinkled over with 
crystallized sand, and condemned to perpetual 
drought. 
The first great chain runs parallel to the coast 
from east to west, and encloses, between it and the 
sea, a belt of land, varying from 20 to 60 miles in 
breadth. This district is fertile, well wooded and 
watered, and enjoying a more mild and equal tem- 
perature than the rest of the colony. Behind this 
chain rises, at some distance, the Zwarte Berg, or 
Black Mountain, considerably loftier and more 
rugged. The belt enclosed between these two is 
partly fertile, but interspersed with extensive tracts 
of arid clay land called Karroo. A third chain 
of mountains is called the Nieuweldts Gebirgte, 
and is greatly elevated above the Zwarte Berg. 
Between these two chains is situated the Great 
Karroo, an immense tract of parched desert, near- 
ly 300 miles in length and 80 in breadth, which 
forms the third step or terrace of Southern Africa. 
Cape Town, the capital, and the only place in 
the colony to which the name of a town can be ap- 
plied, consists of about eleven hundred houses, re-* 
gularly built in straight lines, and intersecting each 
other at right angles. Between the town and the 
Table mountain are situated a number of neat coun- 
try houses, with gardens and plantations. Most 
