fide of a quay ; and it terminates to the northward in a fine
finooth Tandy beach, where boats may always land with fafety.
The pofition of Marcus Ifland, in the entrance, a folid block of
granite, is peculiarly happy for protecting the bay, to which a
battery ereCted upon it and mounted with heavy cannon would
be fully competent. The different points alfo jutting into the
bay are well calculated to provide for its defence. *
The fituation of Saldanha Bay is much more convenient than
that of the peninfula for receiving the fupplies afforded by the
country. The deep fandy ifthmus, whofc heavy roads have
been the deftrubtion of multitudes of cattle, would be entirely
avoided ; and its diftance from thè corn diftri&s, which is the
moft material article of cOnfumption, is much lefs than that
o f the Cape. Its fituation, with regard to all the northern
parts of the colony, is much more convenient than Cape
Town; and equally fo for thofe who inhabit the diftant dif-
triCt of Graaf Reynet, and who ufually pafs over the Roode
Sand Kloofi
It maybe afked, then, how it has happened, at the fir ft
foundation of the fettlement, that the preference was given to
Table Bay, which poffeffes not a fingle convenience for flapping
; and is, at the beft, no better than an open afnd dangerous
road ? The anfwer has already been given in the laft chapter,
where it was obferved, that the clear and copious ftream of
water ruffing out of the Table Mountain, had determined the
fite of the Town. Ùnfortunately, no fuch ftream. o f water falls
into
into Saldanha Bay.; nor has any fpring yet been difcovered in
the vicinity of its ffores, that has been confidered as fufficient
to fnpply the demands of a final! fquadron for freff water. I
muft obferve, however, that the trials hitherto made have been
very infufficient. - Indeed, I know of none but that of the
late Sir Hugh Chriftian, whofc failure in this attempt I have already
had occafion to notice. It may be obferved, in the annexed
chart of the coafts from Table Bay to Saldanha Bay, that
in every part there are abundance of fprings fpontaneoully
burfting out of the ground, for not one of thefe have ever been
dbg for, 'nor a fpade put into the ground in order to open the
conduits and fuffer them to run more .freely. If, indeed, we
eonfider for a moment the fituation of this low fandy belt of
land, ftretching along the northern coall, common fenfe muft
convince us that there is plenty of wafer at no great diftàncè
below the furfade. It W bounded bn thé èaft, at the diftance
only of fevbnty miles by a chain of mountains, whofe fummits
are from ftwo' to nearly five thoufand feet high ; and all the
Waters, from both fides of thete mountains, fall upon this narrow
plain. A great part of them, it is true, fink into the Berg
River, but the Berg River itfelf is on a level with Saldanha
Bay, into which, indeed, the whole body of it might, with
great eafe, be earned, asT mentioned in the firft volume, where
I alfo noticed the objeSions againft fuch a meafure. The
fpring at Witte Klip, the White Rock, about fix miles to the
northward of Hoetjes Bay, feems amply fufficient for the fup-
ply-oF ¿‘large fleet df ffips, if collefted and brought to the bay
in pipes, the expence of whidh could not exceed a few thou-
i fand