ftones entirely expofed. Moft o f them are rent and falling
afunder .from their own weight: others are completely hollowed
out fo as to be nothing more than a cruft or ihell; and
they have almoft invariably a fmall aperture on that fide of the
ftone which faces the bottom of the hill or the fea-lhore.
Such excavated blocks of coarfe granite are very common on
the hills o f Africa, and are frequently inhabited by runaway
Haves.
Refting on the granite and clay is the firft horizontal ftraturn,
o f the Table Mountain, commencing at abb'ut five hundred
feet above the level o f ’the fea. It is filiceous fand-ftbne o f a
dirty yellow color. Above this is a' deep brown fand-fione,
containing calciform ores of iron, and veins, of hematite running
through the folid rock. . Upon this-rcfts a.mafs, o f about a
thouland feet.in height, of a whitiili-grcy ihining granular
quartz, mouldering away in many places by expofure to the
weather, and in others palling into fand-ftone. The fummit o f
the mountain has entirely undergone the trattfition into fand-
ftone ; and the fkeletons of the rocks, that have hitherto refilled
the ravages o f time, are furrounded by myriads o f oval-lhaped
and rounded pebbles of femitranfparent quartz that were once
embedded in them. Thofe pebbles having acquired their
rounded form by friftion when the matrix, in which they are
Hill found buried, had not affirmed the form and confiftenee o f
ftone ; and the fituation o f this ftratified matrix on blocks o f
primaeval granite, clearly point out a grand revolution to have
taken place on the furface o f the globe we inhabit. No organized
remains, however, o f the Old World, fuch as Ihells buried
in
in the rock, petrefailions o f fifties, or imprefiions of plants,
appear on the fides o f the Table Mountain, as has been
afierted.
To thofe whom mere curiofity, or the more laudable defire
of acquiring information, may tempt to make a vifit to-the
fummit of the Table Mountain, the bell and readieft accefs will
be found direftly up the face next to the town. The afcent
lies through a deep chafm. that divides the curtain from the left
baftion. The length of this ravine is about three-fourths of a
mile ; the perpendicular cheeks at the foot more than a thou-
fand feet high, and the angle of afcent about forty-five degrees.
The entrance into this deep chafm is grand and awful. The
two fides, diftant at the Lower part about eighty yards from each
other, converge within a few feet at the portal, which opens
upon the fummit, forming two lines o f natural perlpeftive.
On palling this portal, a plain of very confiderable extent fpreads
out, exhibiting a dreary wafte and an infipid tamenefs, after
quitting the bold and romantic fcenery of the chafm. And the
adventurer m a y pe rh aps feel ftrongly difpofed to alk himfelf if
fuch be all/the gratification he is to receive for having undergone
fo great a fatigue in the afcent. The mind, however,
will foon be relieved at the recollection of the great command
given by the elevation ; and the eye, leaving the immediate
fcenery, will wander with delight round the whole circumference
of the horizon. On approaching the verge o f the.
mountain—
u How fearful *
tf And dizzy *tis to caft one’s-eyes fo low
*. «. # * #. •
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