part of it, was a turnpike, very even and smooth;
paid toll, one shilling. Drove through an avenue of large oak trees,
their topmost branches meeting overhead, to the extent of one fourth of
a mile, forming a fine shade in summer. The seasons, of which there are
but two, winter and summer, are reversed in Southern Africa; July being
a cool month, and Christmas coming in _midsummer_ at the Cape.

Returned to dinner at the hotel at seven o'clock, and ate some splendid
Cape mutton. The caudal arrangements of the sheep at the Cape bear a
great similarity to those at Shanghae.

After supper set out for a walk, in which were disappointed by a shower.
It rains only in the winter season here, but heavy dews in the summer
make up this deficiency of nature's nourishment, and the colony is
carpeted with herbage of the most delicious fragrance, so that the paths
of the colonists may then be said to be strewn with flowers.

The winters at the Cape are extremely mild; no snow falls there; and if
at night ice is formed, it does not long withstand the rays of the sun.
The season corresponds in its general features with our autumn. In the
interior the winters are said to be more severe, and streams are
sometimes frozen over.

Although it was the first winter month, in M. Van Renen's orange grove
at Constantia, the trees were so laden with the Hesperian fruit, that
their limbs were bent to the ground and many broken. Saw there also,
pomegranates, liquots, rose apples, and a variety of tropical fruits,
some ready to pluck, others in different stages of ripening.

Up betimes the next morning for a walk through Cape Town. Streets wide
and clean, principally paved or macadamized. No banquettes; porches
project in front of the houses, covering the _trottoir_, and pedestrians
are forced into the middle of the street. That Hibernian must have been
an emigrant to Cape Town, who remarked that "the middle of the street
was the _best side_ of the way."

The houses, however, present a fine appearance externally; they are
usually about three stories in height, and being stuccoed, are painted
in imitation of free-stone. Their tops are flat, to which their
occupants repair to spend the remainder of the evening after their late
dinners. There is a freshness about the place which is quite reviving
after many days at sea, and was particularly pleasant to us, who had
seen nothing but filthy Chinese towns for two years and upwards;
Hong-Kong having b