ADDITIONAL NOTICES. 
372 
[June 14, 1858. 
circumstance to be attributed in a great measure to tbe clearness of the atmo- 
sphere as much as to the general dryness of its surface-soil. 
The soil, for the most part a rich alluvial loam, is capable when properly 
irrigated of producing every variety of European vegetable, but neither garden 
nor agricultural pursuits are much indulged in by the colonial farmers, wool 
being the greatest and most profitable staple, and the boundless extent of 
good pasture land, with numerous saline plants, shows how peculiarly adapted 
the country is for sheep-breeding. The bases of the mountains are sprinkled 
with the prickly mimosa and evergreen shrubs, whilst the higher ridges and 
rugged tops are embellished with various species of succulent plants and 
flowering aloes, but there are no trees. Owing to the rapid decomposition of 
the sandstone formation, some of the undercliffs have assumed the most 
grotesque and singular outlines — embattled, as it were, with natural ramparts 
of perpendicular rocks, whilst they are garrisoned in many places with troops 
of large baboons. 
The town itself, though barely three years in existence, is fast rising into 
a place of importance, being on the main line of traffic from Buffalo Mouth to 
Aliwal (North) and the Free State : there are 13 or 14 stores, and the busi- 
ness done is very great. The water of the Kowana has been carried out by 
means of an aqueduct from about three miles above the town, and from it 
smaller streams branch off to different parts ; but very little in the ornamental 
way has been attempted, except planting a weeping willow here and there in 
the streets and along the watercourse. The camp is on an elevated plateau 
on the north side, and till within the last two months has been occupied by 
the headquarters of our regiment, eight companies strong ; but now it is sadly 
diminished, 300 men being detached at Bramneck, Tylden, and Winfogleneck 
along the frontier line, and the headquarters, too, have moved to Grahams- 
town, leaving only half a company at Queenstown, so that the large camp 
exists now only upon paper, though there are some chances of its being again 
augmented. Sportsmen find plenty of work in the plains around : the herds 
of beautiful springbuck afford the most exciting chase, and for birds there are 
partridge (grey and red-winged), guinea-fowl, the Kaffir pheasant, quail, 
plover, and snipe in abundance ; excepting a few hartebeests and ostriches, 
which are very wild on the Boutebuck Flats, the larger game has all been 
driven far inland by the advancing steps of the white man. 
6 . The Discovery of America by the Northmen . # 
The Dane Gardar, of Swedish origin, was the first Northman who discovered 
Iceland, in 863. Only a few out-places of this county had been visited pre- 
viously, about 70 years before, by Irish hermits. Eleven years subsequently, 
or in 874, the Norwegian Ingolf began the colonization of the country, which 
was completed during a space of 60 years. The colonists, many of whom 
belonged to the most illustrious and most civilised families in the North, 
established in Iceland a flourishing republic. Here, on this distant isle-rock, 
the Old-Danish or Old -Northern language was preserved unchanged for cen- 
turies, and here in the Eddas were treasured those Folk-songs and Folk-myths, 
and in the Sagas those historical tales and legends, which the first settlers had 
* Communicated by Professor Charles C. Rafn, and founded on his work 
‘ Antiquitates Americanae sive Scriptores Septentrionales rerum Ante-Colum- 
bianarum in America,’ published by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries of 
Copenhagen. 
