177^' THE PACIFIC OCEAX. t^f) 



of Babylon, or the Pearl Diamond.* It lies, or 

 stands, upon the top of some low hills, at the foot of 

 which our farm-house was situated ; and though the 

 road to it is neither very steep nor rugged, we were 

 above an hour and a half in walking to it. It is of 

 an oblong shape, rounded on the top, and lies nearly 

 south and north. The east and west sides are 

 steep, and almost perpendicular. The south end is 

 likewise steep, and its greatest height is there; from 

 whence it declines gently to the north part, by which 

 we ascended to its top, and had an extensive view of 

 the whole country. 



Its circumference, I think, must be at least half a 

 mile; as it took us above half an hour to walk round 

 it, including every allowance for the bad road, and 

 stopping a little. At its highest part, which is the 

 south end, comparing it with a known object, it 

 seems to equal the dome of St. Paul's church. It is 

 one uninterrupted mass of stone, if we except some 

 fissures, or rather impressions, not above three or 

 four feet deep, and a vein which runs across near its 

 north end. It is of that sort of stone called, bv miner- 



* In the Philosophical Transactions, vol. Ixviii. parti, p. 102, 

 we have a Letter from Mr. Anderson to Sir John Pringle, describ- 

 ing this remarkable stone. The account sent home from the Cape, 

 and read before the Royal Society, is much the same with that 

 now published, but rather fuller. In particular, he tells Sir John, 

 that he went to see it at Mr. Mason s desire, who, probably, had 

 not had an opportunity of sufficiently examining it himself. In 

 the account of his journies, above referred to, p. 270, he only says, 

 u there are two large solid rocks on the Per el Berg, each of which 

 {he believes) is more than a mile in circumference at the base, and 

 upwards of two hundred feet high. Their surfaces are nearly 

 smooth, without chink or fissures ; and they are found to be a spe- 

 cies of granite, different from that which composes the neighbouring 

 mountains." 



Mr. Anderson having, with his letter to Sir John Pringle, also 

 sent home a specimen of the rock, it was examined by Sir Wil- 

 liam Hamilton, whose opinion is, that " this singular, immense 

 fragment of granite, most probably has been raised by a volcanic 

 explosion, or some such cause" See his Letter to Sir John Prin- 

 gle, annexed to Mr. Anderson's, in the Philosophical Transactions, 



VOL. V. K 



