the ihores o f the bays, but fuch only as are commonly known.
The fhells that moftly abound are o f the univalve tribe. The
patella genus is the moil plentiful ; and that large, beautiful,
pearly fhell, the Haliotis Midce, is very common. Cypreea, Volutes,
and Cones are alfo abundant. All thefe are colleded on the
coafl near the Cape, and burnt into lime, there being no lime-
ftone on the whole peninfula, and none worth the labor of getting,
and the expenditure o f fuel necefiary for burning it, in
any part of the colony.
During the winter feafon whales are very plentiful in all the
bays of Southern Africa, and give to the fifhermen a much eafier
opportunity of taking them than in the open fea. They are
fmaller and lefs valuable than thoife o f the fame kind in thq
northern feas, but fufficiently fo to have engaged the attention
o f a Company lately eftabliihed here for carrying on a fiihery
in Table Bay. They run in general from fifty to fixty feet in
length, and produce from fix to ten tons of oil each. The
bone o f fuch fmall fiih is not very valuable. It is remarked
that all thofe which have yet been caught were females ; and
it is fuppofed that they refort to the bays as places o f ihelter to
depofit their young. Seals were once plentiful on the rocky
illands of Falfe bay, as is ftill that curious animal the penguin,
forming the link o f conneftion between the feathered and the
finny tribe.
Infedls o f almoft every defcription abound in the fummer
months, and particularly a fpecies o f locull which infells the
gardens, devouring, if not kept under, every green thing that
comes
comes in its way. Mufquitoes are lefs troublefome here than
in moil warm climates, nor does their bite caufe much inflammation
; but a fmall fand fly, fo minute as fcarcely to be vifible,
is a great torment to thofe who may have occafion to crofs
among the ihrubbery of the fandy ifthtnus.' Lizards of various
kinds, among which is the caméléon, are very abundant ; and
fmall land-turtles are every where crawling about in the high
roads and on the naked plains. Scorpions, fcqlopendras,. and
large black fpiders, are among the noxious infedls of the Cape ;
and almoft all the fnakes of the country are venemous.
The firft appearance of fo ftupendous a mafs o f naked rock
as the Table Mountain cannot fail to arreft, for a time, the
attention o f the moil indifferent obferver o f nature from all
inferior objedts, and muft particularly intereft that o f the mine-
ralogift. As a defcription o f this mountain will, with few variations,
anfwer to that of almoft all the great ranges in Southern
Africa, it may not perhaps be thought too tedious to enter into
a detail of its form, dimenfions, and conftituent parts.
The name of “Table Land và given by feamen to every hill or
mountain whofe fummit prefents to the eye o f the obferver a
line parallel to the horizon. The north front of the Table
Mountain, diredtly facing the town, is a horizontal, line, or. very
nearly fo, o f about two miles in length. The bold face, that
rifes almoft at right angles to meet this line, is fupported, as it
were, by a number o f projedting buttrefles that rife out of the
plain, and fall in with the front a- little higher than midway
from the bafe. Thëfe, and the divifion of the front, by two
f great