22Z Defcription of the Table and the 



Wronger and incorruptible, but has made known to the arte 

 the real folveht of refins and of aromatic principles, and, at 

 the fame time, a mean as fimple as certain for preferving ani- 

 mal and vegetable fubftances from all putrid decompotition. 

 It is on thefe remarkable properties that the art of the var- 

 nifher, the perfumer, the maker of liqueurs, and others 

 founded on the fame bafis, have been fuccefiively eftabliihed. 



XXXIII. Defcriptlon of the Table and the Vaarlberg Moun- 

 tains y in Southern Africa* By John Barrow, -£/?•* 



A HE firft appearance of fo ftupendous a mafs of naked 

 roek as the Table Mountain, cannot fail to arreft, for a time, 

 the attention of the mod indifferent obferver of nature from 

 all inferior objects, and mod particularly intereft that of the 

 mineralogift. As a defcription of this mountain will, with 

 few variations, anfwer to that of almoft all the great ranges 

 in Southern Africa, it may not, perhaps, be thought too te- 

 dious to enter into a detail of its form, dimenfions, and con- 

 itituent parts. 



The name of talle land is given by feamen to every hill or 

 mountain whofe fummit prefents to the eye of the obferver 

 a line parallel to the horizon. The north front of the Table 

 Mountain, directly facing the town, is a horizontal line, or 

 very nearly fo, of about two miles in length. The bold face, 

 that riles almoft at right angles to meet this line, is fup- 

 portcd, as it were, by a number of projecting buttrefles that 

 rife out of the plain, and fall in with the front a little higher 

 than midway from the bafe. Thefe and the diviflon of the 

 front, by two great chafms, into three parts, a curtain flanked 

 by two baftions, the firft retiring and the others project- 

 ing, give to it the appearance of the ruined walls of fome 

 gigantic fortrefs. Thefe walls rife above the level of Table 

 Say to the height of 3583 feet, as determined by captain 

 Bridges, of the royal engineers, from a meafured bafe and 

 angles taken with a good theodolite. The call fide, which 

 runs pff at right angles to the front, is ftill bolder, and has 

 one point higher by feveral feet. The weft fide, along the 

 fea more, is rent into deep chafms, and worn away into a 

 number of pointed mafTes. In advancing to the fouthward 

 about four miles, the mountain defcends in fteps or terraees, 

 the loweft of which communicates by gorges with the chain 



* From BarrQ-'vs T'rwveh Into Southern Africa, a work, highly worthy 

 of the attention of ev.ry perion fund of uarural hinory. 



that 



