iimilar to that which I mentioned to have feen in the plains of
.the Zuure Veldt, and which I then fuppofed the Kaffers to have
carried thither from the liea fhoiie. I paid little attention to the
report at that time j but fince my return to the Cape, the difco-
very of a third mafs, in an extraordinary fituation, the very
fummit of Table Mountain, excited a ftronger degree of cu-
riofity. I imagined the firft to have been the flat part of an
anchor, although it was deftitute of any. particular ihape, but
in this of Table Mountain, which may weigh from one hundred
and fifty to one hundred and fixty pounds, there appeared
-fome faint traces of the fhape o f the flook, or the broad part of
the arm which takes hold of the ground. It was found half buried
in fand and quartz pebbles, every part, as well under as
above ground, much corroded, and the cavities filled with pebbles,
which, however, did not appear to be component parts of
the mafs, not being angular, but evidently rounded by attrition.
As, in the firft inftance, I fuppofe the Kaffers to have carried
the mafs into the fituation where it was difcovered; fo alfo,
with regard to the latter, I am inclined to think it mull have
been brought upon the fummit of the mountain by the native
Hottentots, as to a place of fafety, when Bartholomew Diaz,
or fome of the early Portuguefe navigators, landed firft in this
country. Others, however, who have feen and examined the
mafs are'of opinion, that it muft have been placed in its prefent
fituation at a period long antecedent to the difcovery of the
Cape of Good Hope by Europeans. Be that as it may, the re-
femblance it bears to part of an anchor, with the Neptunian
appearances of various parts of Southern Africa, which are
particularly ftriking in the formation of the Table Mountain,
j prefs
prefs. ftroftgly op the recql|e£lion the beautiful obfemtion of the
Latin poet.' no g< hfishochk fbfm
H H yr‘ cgift tellus, , • .1 : f
. ^ ‘f Effe fretum/ Vidi fa£tas ex aequoret terras,
' “ E t’ ¡5rocur*a pefago concha jaduere mafihas1 ^ l
f( E t vetus inventa eft in montibus anchora fumnu8.,>
« J The face of¿»laces, arid their forms, decay;
. 1 <tr'Ahd*that<ft*folid earthth'aft?$nc£T&s nS5'5 nf:i
“ Seas in, theit lurn, retrektingifiOmi%£i:fti(Ji*ep t f: : i r. ' . I
“ Make.foli^LJan^,,what,ocpafl WRshefore,;. .. I ;
“ Far fro/n'the ihore a^e 'fhells .of fifties found,
‘ ‘ “' Arid nifty'“anchor^fix'd-on' hiuritaih%founii.^"
It may be obferved, by the way, ithat 'Mr. Dryden has re-
verfed the idea of the poet- in ¡the firft •couplet of- his tranflatiou,
and continued the fame in his-feeoiid, making only the land to
gam on the lea, infteadof contraffi-ng it with the oppofite e He cl
of the fea encroaching-On-the land. Ghferying this to a fon of
my ingenious and ¡learned friend-S>o£l:ot Tytler, a boy of twelve
years of age,' he requefted to have the Latin lines, and immediately
produced the following ¡ftanzas:'
y Tifrn’d injtotfea I ’jvje'feenvthe ,eai$h.
X)ifli?lved in the.wave,
_ttJ A n d from the te a riew hills fpririg forth,
iff i A n d ithear' broad backs upheave. ‘
Anjd far r
■ SheUshave^ifcover^d been, * ,
** And on the .tops of rifing grounds
• ‘Old rtifty atfctrofs feen"."1
VOL. II. M In