236 



penetrated the most compact parts of the granite. The base 

 of the cavern is a coarse sandstone, the whole covered with 



limestone. • 



Tlie southern extreme of the Cape consists of lofty 

 cliffs, presenting two ranges of superb caverns: the lowest 

 of which we explored. The great or outer cavern is about 

 forty feet high at the entrance, forty feet in breadth, and 

 about ninety feet in depth, into which the sea rolls at high- 

 w^ater, over immense blocks of granite, and in awful grandeur. 

 The stalactites in this cavern are many of them from twenty 

 to twenty-five feet in length, covered with minute Cryptogamic 

 vegetables of fantastic colours and form. The walls of the 

 cavern are clothed with the same substances, which give to 

 the whole an extraordinary appearance. The second cavern 

 is distinct from the first. The entrance is about twenty 

 feet in height, and twenty in breadth, increasing in height and 

 breadth farther in. The stalactites and stalagmites in this 

 cavern are abundant, and of the purest white. The former 

 were observed often to exceed fifteen feet in length. There 

 was a remarkable circumstance observed at the entrance of 

 this cavern: the stalactites were all bent outwards, as if a 

 gale of wind was perpetually blowing through the cavern. 

 The three succeeding caverns are of minor importance, 

 but all containing stalactites. The appearance of the cliffs 

 and caverns from the sea is exceedingly grand. It ^^ 

 impossible to pass along the beach fourteen yards without 

 crossing a stream which issues from caverns of limestone 

 and which forms banks of shells, sea-weed, stones, a 

 whatever substances may come within their reach, incrusti 



J 



nd 



them in a most beautiful manner. 



Such, indeed, were the attractions of the country, that we 



all felt sorry on leaving it. 



Charles Fbaseb- 



