Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.3)

578 CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. June, 1836. of the mountain : it foYms one of the principal roads from the low land of the coast, to the mountains and great plains of the interior. We reached the foot of the mountains on the opposite, or S. E. side of the pass, a little after noon. Here, at the toll-bar, we found comfortable lodgings for the night. The surrounding mountains were destitute of trees, and even of brushwood ; but they supported a scattered vegetation of rather a brighter green than usual : the quan- tity, however, of white siliceous sandstone, every where protruding itself uncovered, gave to the country a bleak and desolate aspect. 6th. — My intention was to return by Sir Lo\<Ty Cole's pass, over the same chain of mountains as before, but a little further to the south. Following unfrequented paths, we crossed an irregular hilly country until we joined the other line of road. During the whole long day, I met scarcely a single person, and saw but few inhabited spots, or any number of cattle. A few roebucks were grazing on the sides of the hiUs, and some large dirty white vultures, like the condors of America, slowly wheeled over the place where probably some dead animal was lying. There was not even a tree to break the monotonous uniformity of the sand- stone hills : I never saw a much less interesting country. At night we slept at the house of an English farmer ; and at an early hour the next day we descended by Sir Lowry's pass, which, like that of the French Hoeck, has been cut, at a great expense, along the flank of a steep mountain. From the summit, there was a noble view of the whole of False Bay, and of the Table Mountain, and, immediately below, of the cultivated country of Hottentot Holland. The flat, covered with sand-dunes did not appear, when viewed from this height, of the tedious length which we found it before we reached in the evening Cape Town. June 18th.' — We put to sea, and, on the 29th, crossed the Tropic of Capricorn for the sixth and last time. On the 8th of July, we arrived ofi" St. Helena. This island, the for- bidding aspect of which has been so often described, rises