J o U R N E Y I. 271 
tively fay, is more than a mile about at the bafe, and up- 
wards of two hundred feet high above the ground. 
Their furfaces are nearly fmooth, without chink or fif- 
fures, and they are found to be a fpecies of faxum or era- 
mte, different from that which compofe the neigh- 
bouring mountains. 
1 8th, From hence we continued our journey to a val- 
ley, adjoining the S. E. part of Draakenfteen, called 
F ranfehe Hoekc^* it having been fettled by a party of 
French refugees, who left France about the begin- 
ning of this century. Though but a poor fettlement, 
being a cold, moorifh foil, it produces corn enough for 
its inhabitants, four wine and fome fruit. Drakenfteen 
and Franfche Hoek are bounded on the N.E. and S.E. 
by a chain of high mountains, which have their be- 
ginning at Cape Falfo, run in a winding courfe to the 
bhW. of St. Helena Bay, and fend out feveral branches 
into the interior parts of the country. Thefe two val- 
lies are watered by the Berg Rivier, which rifes in the 
Stellenbofch mountains. It is a confiderable river, but 
no where navigable. The banks are decorated with a 
great variety of uncommon trees. 
January 4, 1773, We reached Stellenbofch, a fmall 
village about thirty miles N.E. from the Cape Town, 
confifting of about thirty houfes, forming one regular 
ftreet, with a row of large oak-trees on each fide along 
the front of the houfes, which render it very pleafant in 
(a) Tliis, I fuppofe, to be the place which fome of the French voyagers in 
their obfervations on the Cape of Good Hope, call Petite Rochelle. 
the 
