In all other parts of the bay an attempt to make any kind of
harbour would be fruitlefs. The tide barely rifes five feet, and
the conftant rolling fwell in the winter feafon would always choak
the entrance of any dock with fand. Thus the mouth of the
Salt River is alternately open and blocked up with fand.
The annexed chart of Table Bay was conitru£ted by order of
Governor Van de Graaf in the year 1786, and has been found,
by a diligent examination, to be extremely accurate. The anchoring
ground in general is tolerably good, but the Ihifting of
the fand leaves bare fometimes whole ridges of the fame kind
of hard blue fchiftus that appears every where on the weft ihore
of the bay. Thefe ridges are fo iharp, that a cable coming
acrofs them is fure to be cut in pieces. This has happened fo
frequently that the bay is full of anchors, which have never
been fiihed up ; and thefe contribute equally with the rocks, to
cut and chafe the cables of other ihips. If fome pains be not
taken to remove the anchors, the number of which increafe
every year, there will not, in time, be a clear anchorage for a
fingle large Ihip.. When the Dutch Admiral Dekker’s fquadron
was blown out of Table Bay in February laft they left fix or
eight anchors behind.
Admiral Pringle, I underftand, was of opinion that the inconvenience
arifing from the rocks and the loft anchors was in
fome degree remediable, by finking mooring-chains for the large
Ihips, inftead of their lying at anchor. In the fouth-eaft winds,
which blow from September to the end of April, and which is
the feafon when all ihips bound for the Cape refort to Tabic Bay,
there