This would also be difficult, because of the rocky ground, as we found the next day, after having spent the night in the veldt. The matter is therefore impossible, and would be useless and most injurious to the Company, as the Canal could not be made so wide and deep as to prevent the natives swimming across with their cattle. In case it is supposed that on this side the passage would be closed to them, it must be borne in mind that a large sheet of water on the south side of False Cape about three hours' walk in circumference, becomes a large dry and salt flat in summer, so that no proper Canal could be pierced through it--as the sand is soft and the downs are high--which latter would continually fill up the channel; thousands of men would be required to keep it open; so that the Company cannot for a moment think of it, as the expense would be enormous in comparison with the advantages derived. _Millions of gold would be required!_ and if finally the work be finished and communication with the natives cut off, it would be absurd to suppose that they could be confined on this side--for the artificial island would have such dimensions that, in order to control it, a large number of men would be required, scattered in the veldt, not a few, but a good many, soldiers. 'The idea that such a canal would enable the householders to live more securely is hardly worth considering, as those who may choose to live here and there may build stone dwellings sufficiently strong to protect them from the natives. Should such free householders cost the Company so much that soldiers are to be kept for their defence, instead of their assisting the Company?...' [Illustration: ON THE SANDHILLS NEAR MUIZENBERG] We cantered over some small sand-hills, and came down to the plains, covered with 'quick' grass, dotted with small yellow protea-bush, tiny pink flowers, and scarlet heath called 'erica,' intersected by blue pools of water, their surfaces almost covered by a sweet-smelling, white waterweed. The Malays gather the flower, 'water-eintje,' and curry it or stew it into a thick soup. A narrow, white, sandy pathway ran between the pools, and far away, in a blue haze, we saw Table Mountain and the Devil's Peak. Quoting again from the Diary: '_June 29, 1656._ 'Proceeded to the Flats where Van Goens wished to have canal dug. Find the whole country so inundated with rapid streams that the whole cutting, with redoubts and all, would, if made, be swept away at once. The Flats had become a combination of lakes; the work would therefore at present be left in abeyance.' The ponies slopped through the wet sand, and ahead lay the big lake called Zeekoe Vlei (_i.e._, Sea-Cow Lake), separated from a smaller lake, Ronde Vlei, by a narrow isthmus.