208 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. VIII. 
eagerly consumed a number of small sheaves of oats, called 
oat-hay, which is the usual provender for horses in the colony. 
At the same farm-house where we procured the oats we 
also obtained bread and milk, and excellent grapes, for our own 
breakfast. I afterwards went to one of the large barns or out¬ 
houses near, into which a number of Caffre and Fingoe women 
were carrying on their heads baskets of grapes; and on en¬ 
tering the place saw, towards one end, a large heap of bunches 
of fine ripe grapes, which the master informed us were to be 
used in making brandy. The grapes are first put into large 
vats or bags, formed by attaching a bullock’s hide by its edges 
and four poles, and leaving it to sink down in the middle. I 
thought, as I looked at the heap, that such fine, ripe, juicy 
looking fruit might have been appropriated to a better 
purpose. 
The place where the grapes grew was at some distance, but 
close to this lone dwelling, on the border of the wide desert, I 
was delighted to find a little spot inclosed as a flower-garden, 
in which lilies, gladioluses, balsams, cockscombs, stocks, pinks, 
passion flowers, very stunted dahlias, and other flowers, as 
well as culinary herbs, were growing. 
The features of the country, in the direction opposite to the 
desert, were characterised by that vastness, massive solidity, 
and grandeur which had marked all the most striking por¬ 
tions of African scenery that I had yet seen, and which made 
the picturesque mountains and valleys of Mauritius appear, 
in comparison, only like charming little miniature models of 
nature. The Camdeboo mountains lay a few miles distant in 
a northerly direction, presenting, at different parts along the 
range, the perpendicular wall-like summit and long flat top 
so peculiar to this part of Africa; and beyond these, to the 
north-east, the loftier range of the Sneuwberg stretched far 
away in the distant horizon. 
Soon after noon we resumed our journey, and often resting 
