The fort itself was situated in a most picturesque part of the country. The pass leading into the valley through which the river runs was most romantic, winding through a delightful parklike country, crossed by rapid streams of clear, ice-cold water, and, as it narrowed became quite precipitous, the road dwindling to a mere footpath, so narrow that mounted men could not ride more than two abreast. The kloof was flanked on the precipice side by loose masses of rock, intermingled with trees and bush, and tangled with monkey-ropes and creepers of all kinds. The lower side sloped suddenly with a fall of about sixty feet to the bottom of the valley, where a rapid mountain stream, gurgling as it rushes over its rocky bed, fell soothingly upon the ear with a most dreamy yet refreshing sound. The other road to the fort passed through a still more beautiful valley, leading to the Inyezani kloof by a path cut in the precipitous face of the hill, whose sides were clothed with "spekboem" (elephant bush) and all kinds of flowering shrubs. The road looked down a declivity of some 200 feet, and was worn in places into a perfect staircase of boulders by successive torrents of tropical rain, and would be quite impracticable for any other species of vehicle than a Cape waggon. The edge facing the precipice had no kind of parapet, and the dangerous nature of the pass was brought into still greater prominence by the _débris_ of an ox waggon still lying broken up in minute particles at the bottom of the valley, where it had evidently gone down bodily with its span of oxen. The pass was, however, in spite of its danger, very beautiful. Convolvuli ran over the bushes in rich clusters, the star-shaped jessamine, with its pink undersides, and the magnificent specimens of mesembryanthemums, or fig-marigolds, of which there are hundreds of different species, having little transparent pellicles, containing pure liquid, scattered over the leaves, giving them the appearance of being sprinkled over with ice, and scarlet geraniums, attaining a height of ten or twelve feet amidst the thick bush, glowed on every side.