Snow rarely falls upon the coast of Cape Colony, and when it does, it remains but a short time.
The most prominent object seen from Cape Town is Table Mountain, which rises to a height of over thirty-five hundred feet. The summit is sometimes covered with a sprinkling of white, but almost before the people at Cape Town have had time to notice its novel dress, it presents again its wonted aspect.
Cape Colony is by no means the flat, undulating country that many writers would erroneously lead us to believe. On the contrary, it is a wildly picturesque region, with mountainous sections, even, to diversify its character. Interspersed among bold mountain ridges we find light upland tracts and broad elevated plains. While, coursing through the rugged mountain gorges, the drainage of the country finds a path to the Indian or Atlantic Ocean, and even north to the Orange River, and is eventually discharged on the barren northwestern coast. Cape Colony can boast, even within the limits of the sections longest settled by the white man, some of the most picturesque scenery in the world. Hill and valley, barren plain and rich woodland, alternate to add beauty to the landscape.
The rivers of Cape Colony vary as to their extent. The Orange River, though the largest, is so broken up by the various cataracts as to be unsuitable for navigation. This is true of many of the other rivers. A very few of them can be sailed on for a short distance for pleasure, but so short as to be impractical for navigation or transit.
The general appearance of Cape Colony, like that of the whole of the South African region, is dry. During the rainy season the orchids and different bulbous plants give to the ground the appearance of a gayly flowered carpet. The many varieties of heath, for which the Cape is noted, lend a most beautiful character to small patches of territory.
The objects which are most striking to the traveler are, however, the thorny shrubs. These not only manifest themselves to his sight, but to his sense of feeling, as they come in contact with his skin. Mingled with these shrubs are various cactuslike plants. These are quite characteristic of a country where the vegetation must store up moisture during the abundance of the rainy season for the drought of the dry season.
Wheat is grown in the richer sections, together with maize, oats, barley, millet, and Kaffir corn. Rye is raised in some sections, and rice grows well in some of the best undulated districts. Tobacco is grown in many sections, and cotton has been introduced as an experiment.
The Cape still continues to be, to some extent, a hunting ground. In the early days of the colony vast herds of many varieties of the antelope family, lions, giraffes, rhinoceroses, leopards, hyenas, and jackals, roamed over it. Now the hunter must seek his game far to the north of the Orange River.
Ostriches were once common, but are now few. Most of the feathers of these birds are obtained from beyond the borders of the colony, or from tame ones kept on farms and reared from eggs heated artificially. The rearing of ostriches has now become a recognized industry in the Cape.
Many species of venomous snakes are common. Troublesome insects are not so common here as in other parts of Africa.