Читать книгу Yankee Girls in Zulu Land - Louise Vescelius Sheldon - Страница 9

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No matter in which direction one goes, the great Table Mountain, at the foot of which Cape Town is built, makes its presence felt. You cannot look along a street without seeing it; it is the first object that meets the gaze on rising and the last impression the drowsy brain relinquishes at night. It is a fine old mountain, rising sheer from the sea in an almost perpendicular wall above the first slope on which the town is built to a height of 3,852 feet. Its summit is cut off perfectly square, thus suggesting its name. It is four miles long and is very often crowned with a huge white cloud that slowly rises like a vapour from the other side, and then gradually settles over the top of the mountain, hanging like a tablecloth on it.

This always brings with it a storm of wind and sand or rain that can be heard shrieking and tearing down the mountain-side, while the town lies in sultry heat and silence. This cloud is almost like a barometer to the residents. When asked if there will be a storm, the questioned one will quietly look at Table Mountain and will tell you the strength of the storm that may be coming by the size of the tablecloth on the mountain.

It rises and falls like a veil of steam. The moon clearly defining the outline of the mountain with its vapour-covered summits on glorious nights with the bluest of skies above, the wind thundering down its sides, screaming and filling the ear with strange sounds, and the sea rolling in and breaking at its base, make a grand scene.

Imagine the tremendous surface this almost vertical mountain-side presents to the ocean, four miles long and three-quarters of a mile high. How the heart of an American manufacturer would sigh if he saw it, to think of such a “stand” being unutilised for advertising purposes!

The mountain is flanked on the north by a peculiarly formed hill, shaped like a crouching lion, the lion’s head, 2,100 feet high, which is nearest the sea, being used for a signal station. On the southwest extremity is the Devil’s Peak, an ugly-looking spiky-topped mountain, with an elevation of 3,300 feet. The sides of the lion’s head and the base of the mountain are covered thickly with the “silver-tree,” only found here and in Natal. The leaves of this tree are three inches long and one inch wide, and are like an exquisite piece of silver-coloured satin, with a white, hairy surface. Only a few short weeks had elapsed since we left the cold, wintry shores of England, and here in December the flowers were growing in abundance around us; for a very small outlay we converted our room into a conservatory.

The number and diversity of the flowers, both wild and cultivated, that thrive in the colony is unlimited, but alas! the perfume is so faint as to be almost imperceptible. We had huge bunches of roses of all shades, vying in beauty with the very finest of their species to be found anywhere, but almost entirely scentless. The plants of South Africa are of great beauty and fill the conservatories of Europe. This southwestern region is the home of the Cape flora. Orchids innumerable abound on the streams of Table Mountain and the Hottentot Holland Mountain, thirty miles inland. Some of the enthusiastic collectors we had met in England would surely have been made happy by the privilege of classifying them. There are said to be 350 species of beautiful heather in this region, at times making the whole mountain-side look like a warm-hued carpet. There are geraniums, asters of all sorts, heliotropes, lobelias, and so many sorts and varieties of lovely twining vines and beautiful ferns that I give up all hope of ever recording one-half of them.

During the winter months of May, June, July, and August rain falls, and from January to April it is very dry. The climate is warm and moist to an almost sub-tropical extent, owing to the currents of the Indian Ocean, so that flowers are to be found the year round. The lovely “Lily of the Nile” is so common as to be designated by the less euphonious name of “Pig Lily.”

During a few days in the month of December the heat was intolerable, but not more so than the summer heat of New York; and it did not last long. It was a dry heat with generally a breeze stirring, and then the nights were cool and lovely beyond description. In the dryness of the climate is to be found the reason of its giving such comfort to the invalid. There is immunity from ague or bronchitis. But the invalid suffering from pulmonary disease must not think that Cape Town is going to cure his tired lungs, but must hasten on up country, where the great physician Nature receives him and restores him healed to his loved ones at home.

There are three climates to choose from in Africa: the coast climate with more or less moisture; a midland climate, cooler and drier; and a mountain climate drier still, with a bracing atmosphere.

The hotel, although as good as any in the colony, would be considered a very ordinary one in America. The smells exhaled on all sides from the blacks who wait on you and from the ditches over which you take your constitutional walk, the sand, filled with fleas that make you occasional visits unless grease and ointment are used freely on the body, these are the chief annoyances offered the health-seeker; but the colonist will tell you they are nothing as an offset to the “great and glorious climate,” and he is right.

Before the end of the first week we came to the conclusion that South Africa was charming. We were hasty in thus concluding, for, in truth, the scenery in and around Cape Town gives the newcomer an impression of the country which subsequent experiences of sandy plains and barren hills fail to justify. We were invited to visit the home of a wine merchant, who owned the most extensive vineyards at Constantia, some distance from town, reached partially by train. From the train you go then by carriage, through delightfully shady roads, to the cool, rambling old house.

In the rear were the vaults, in which were many hogsheads full of wine made from the grapes grown on the place. The grapes of Constantia are said by some enthusiastic visitors to be the finest in the world; they are certainly most luscious, and the wine really delicious. They grow on low bushes about two and a half feet high and are similar to our California grapes, though, if possible, even more palatable.

The manufacture of wine is the principal industry of the suburbs of Cape Town. Pontak and Cape Sherry, the native sweet wines are the favourite beverages and within the reach of the purse of all classes. In the garden was a beautiful flowering vine, and as we stood admiring it Eva spied what appeared to be a lizard on one of the tendrils; it was about two and a half inches in length, with a long, flexible tail and funny little bulging eyes which seemed to act independently of one another, turning in any direction, up, down, in front or behind. As we watched it, it crawled on to a green leaf, and gradually began to assume the same tint as the leaf itself; at last the little creature, from being of a light brown hue, became almost invisible, so thoroughly had it assumed the shade and tone of the surrounding foliage. Suddenly it shot out a long tongue, apparently longer than itself, and “snaked” (the word expresses the action) a fly that had incautiously approached too near. It was our first introduction to the chameleon, and we watched it with wondering interest during the afternoon.

After remaining three weeks in Cape Town, we found that the changes of temperature caused by the south-easters retarded Frank’s recovery, and we hastened our departure for the upland region.