ract,
almost entirely covered with numerous species and varieties of the
plant, and some of the extensive arid plains in the interior of the
colony are crowded with it. The settlers go forth and pitch their
waggous and campa on these spots to obtain the produce. The shipments
from Table Bay and the eastern port of Algoa Bay are very
considerable. The odor of the Cape aloes is stronger and more
disagreeable than that of the Socotrine or Barbados, and the color is
more like gamboge. It is brought over in chests and skins, the latter
being preferred.

Mr. George Dunsterville, surgeon of Algoa Bay, gives the following
description of the manufacture of Cape aloes:--

A shallow pit is dug, in which is spread a bullock's hide or sheep's
skin. The leaves of the aloe plants in the immediate vicinity of
this pit are stripped off and piled up on the skin to variable
heights. These are left for a few days. The juice exudes from the
leaves, and is received by the skin beneath. The Hottentot then
collects in a basket or other convenient article the produce of many
heaps, which is then put into an iron pot capable of holding
eighteen or twenty gallons. Fire is applied to effect evaporation,
during which the contents of the pot are constantly stirred to
prevent burning. The cooled liquor is then poured into wooden cases
of about three feet square by one foot deep, or into goat or sheep
skins, and thus is filled for the market. In the colony aloes
realises about 21/4 d. to 31/2 d. per pound. The Hottentots and Dutch
boors employ indiscriminately different species of aloe in the
preparation of the drug.

The Cape aloes, which _is_ usually prized the highest in the English
market, is that made at the Missionary institution of Bethelsdorp (a
small village about nine miles from Algoa Bay, and chiefly inhabited
by Hottentots and their missionary teachers). Its superiority arises
not from the employment of a particular species of aloe, for all
species are used, but from the greater care and attention paid to
what is technically called the cooking of the aloes; that is, the
evaporation, and to the absence of all adulterating substances
(fragments of limestone, sand, earth, &c.), often introduced by
manufacturers.

Mr. Moodie, in his "Ten Years' Residence in Southern Africa," gives a
somewhat similar account.

Mr. Bunbury states that, abou