i77*- mai'fhv part has fome verdure, but is intermixed with a
VEMBER. J V
great deal of fand. The higher grounds, which from the
fea fide have a parched and dreary appearance, are however
covered with an immenfe variety of plants, amongft
which are a prodigious number of flirubs, but fcarce one
or two fpecies that deferve the name of trees. There are
alfo a few fmall plantations wherever a little run of wafer
moiftens the ground. Abundance of infedts of every
fort, feveral fpecies of lizards, land-tortoifes, and ferpents
frequent the dry fhrubbery, together with a great variety
of fmall birds. We daily brought home ample colleftions
of vegetables and animals, and were much furprifed to
find a great number, efpecially among the latter, entirely
unknown to natural hiftorians, though gathered in fields
adjacent to a town, from whence the cabinets and repofi-
tories of all Europe have been repeatedly fupplied with
numerous and valuable acquifitions to the fcience.
One of our excurfions was directed to the Table mountain.
The afcent was very fteep, fatiguing, and difficult,
on account of the number of loofe Hones which rolled
away under our feet. About the middle of the mountain
we entered a bold grand chafm, whofe walls are perpendicular
and often impending rocks, piled up in ftrata.
Small rills of water oozed out of crevices, or fell from
precipices in drops, giving life to hundreds of plants and
low fhrubs in the chafm. Another kind of vegetables,
growing
growing on a drier foil, that feemed to concentrate their
juices, fpread a fine aromatic fcent, which a gentle breeze
wafted towards us from the chafm. At laft, after three
hours walk, we reached the fummit of the mountain. It
was nearly level, very barren, and bare of foil; feveral
cavities were however replete with rain-water, or contained
a little vegetable earth, from whence a few odoriferous
plants drew their nourifhment. Some antelopes, howling
baboons, fofitary vultures, and toads are fometimes to be
met with on the mountain. The view from thence is very
extenfive:and pifturefque. The bay feemed a fmall pond
or bafon, and the fhips in it dwindled to little boats : the
town under our feet, and the regular compartments of its
gardens, looked like the work o f children; The Lion’s
Rump now feemed an inconfiderable ridge ; we looked
down on the fpiry Lion’s Head, and only Charles’ Mount
rofe as it were in competition with the Table. To the
northward, Robben ifland, the Blue hills, the Tyger hills,
and beyond them a noble chain of mountains, loftier than
that on which we .flood, bounded our view. A group of
broken rocky mafles inclofed Hout baa-y (Wood bay) to
the weft, and continuing to the fouthward formed one fide
of the Table bay, and terminated in the famous Jionny
cape which king Manoel of Portugal named the Cape of
Good Hope. To the fouth-eaft our view extended acrofs
■ the low ifthmus between the two bays; beyond it we
Vol. I. K. difcerned
Nov