great chafms, into three parts, a curtain flanked by two baf-
tions, the firft retiring and the others projecting, give to it the
appearance o f the: ruined wails of fome gigantic fortrefs. Thefe
walls rife above the 'level of Table Bay to the height of 3582
feét, afc determined by Captain Bridges: o f the royal engineers,
from a meafured bafe and angles taken with a good theodolite.
The eaft fide,'which runs-off at right angles to the front, is
ftill bolder, and has one point higher by feveral feet. The weft
fide, along the fea-ihore, is rent into deep chafms, and worn
away into a number o f pointed maffes. In advancing, to the
fouthward about four miles, the mountain defcends in fteps or
terraces, the loweft of which communicates by gorges with the
eháin that extends the: whole length o f the penmfula. ; The two
wings of the front, one the Devil’s Mountain, and the other
the Lion’s Head, make in fadt, with the Table, but one mountain.
The depredations of time and the force of torrents having carried
away the loofer and lei's compact parts, have difunited their
fummits, hut they are ftill joined at a very confiderable elevation
above the common bafe. The .height of the firft is 3313,
and of the latter 2160 feet. The Devil’s Mountain is broken
into irregular points ; but the upper part o f the Lion’s Head is
a folid mafs of ftone, rounded and falhioned like a work of art,
and refembling very much, from feme points o f view, the
dome of St. Paul’s placed upon a high cone-ihaped hill.
Thefe three mountains are compofed of a multitude o f rocky
ftrata piled on each other in large tabular maffes. Their exasft
horizontal pofition denote the origin o f the mafs to he nep-.
tunian and not volcanic j and that fmce its firft formation no
convulfion
Convulfion of the earth has happened in this part of Africa fufi,
ficient to have difturbed the nice arrangement o f its parts. The
ftrata o f thefe poftdeluvian ruins, not being placed in the order
of their lpecific gravity, might lead to the conclufion that they
were depofited in fucceflive periods o f time, were it not for the
circumftance o f their lying clofe upon each other without any
intermediate veins of earthy or other extraneous materials;
The ftratification o f the Cape peninfula, and indeed of the whole
colony, is arranged in the following order:
The ihores o f Table Bay, and the fubftratum of the plain on
which the town is built, compofe a bed of a blue compa<3:
fchiftus, generally placed in parallel ridges in the direction of
north-weft and fouth-eaft, but frequently interrupted by large
maffes o f a hard flinty rock o f the fame color, belonging to that
clafs o f aggregated Hones'propofed by Mr. Kirwan to be called
graniteiles. Fine blue flags, with whitiih ftreaks, are procured
from Robben Ifland, in the mouth of Table Bay, which are ufed
for fteps, and for paving the terraces in front of moft of the
houfes.
Upon the fchiftus lies a body o f ftrong clay colored with
iron from a pale yellow to deep red, and abounding with
brown foliated mica. Embedded in the c la y , are immenfe
blocks of granite fo loofely cemented together that the con-
ftituent parts are eafily feparable by the hand. The mica, the
fand, and indeed the whole bed o f clay, feem to have been
formed from the decompofition of, the granite.- Between the
Lion’s Head and the tea are vaft maffes o f thefe aggregated
f 2 ftones