fandy roads winding about in a ferpentine form, and wag- 0 -y-s_7 gons and timber-tugs creeping along them with a fluggiih motion. > Thefe extenfive plains were bounded by lyger- mountain and the fhores of Hottentots Holland. Next to thefe, but farther on, were feen other mountains, which, according to the diftance. at which they were placed, grew more and more indiitindt, till they entirely difappeared in the clouds. From hence too, befides feveral pools of rainwater, a great part of the creek which forms Falfe-bay, was feen. This, from its calmnefs and diftance, appeared at that juncture as fmooth as a looking-glafs; at the fame time that it was terminated by the ocean, or rather, according to the. appearance it made in my eyes, by the horizon itfelf. From the mift, or fog, which furrounded me on the mountain, I perceived at times ipecks of clouds fnatched off by the north-weft wind, and driving along with violence through the air both above and below the fpot I then ftood upon, and diredtly followed by their fhadows formed upon the fame plains. In a word, this exten- five and delightful fpedlacle was as enchanting as it was lingular. Being not ufed to run any great rifks, I did not venture fo far out as I would have wifhed, in order to examine the top o f Table-mountain on this fide; for, as it grew towards dark, I might have eaiily loll my way, and fall a prey to leopards and hyaenas, which frequent thefe parts in great numbers, and at night are very bold and daring. A little while before they had committed ravages in a farm yard juit below the mountain; I likewife heard their howlings the farqe evening about duik, duik, from the. very place where, two hours before, I had Wfo been botanizing. That very day, at broad day-light, I narrowly efcaped being plundered by a troop o f ilaves, that had fome time before run away from their mailers, and who were fufpedted at that time to have their haunts about 'Table-mountain. A fire that I found there newly extin- guifhed, was probably fome o f their reliques. Still, however, the beautiful profpedl that I have juil been defcribing, would perhaps have kept me longer on the mountain, i f I had not begun to feel a kind of iliffnefs and rheumatic pains in my limbs, owing to my having got into a cold air at the top of the mountain all in a fweat and too lightly clad. This probably would have had ferious confequences, i f I had not accidentally wrought rriyfelf into a moil violent fweat; the fadl was, that in my defcent, wiihing to examine fome of the clofeil thickets on the iides of the rills, that trickle down the mountain, I went out o f the right path, arid got into a very thick over-grown coppice, fo that I could not without the greateil difficulty extricate myfelf from it. Some time before this, or in the beginning of September, I rode to town to take leave of Dr. T h u n b e r d , who was going to take a long journey up the country, at the expence o f the Dutch Eail-India company. I ilaid at his houfe rather late in the evening, which occaiioned me in my way home to be caught in the dark and to mifs my way. I therefore rode up to a farm-houfe to en- quire for the road, and from the information I got, thought to find my way home; but, it beginning to rain, and the darknefs increafing, I took a by e-road, which led me
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