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where the naturalist may gratify his scientific curiosity with 

 the sight of a couple of lions, a wild ass, an ostrich, and 

 two or three flamingoes. 



" The Table Valley is watered by a variety of streamlets, 

 which descend from the mountains, and are turned in all 

 directions, to irrigate the numerous gardens and vineyards 

 which adorn their banks. Neat and commodious houses, 

 embosomed among Oak, Pine, and Silver-trees, and rising in 

 successive stages behind each other, render the back ground 

 of Capetown uncommonly picturesque ; while the stupendous 

 outline of the Table Mountain, impending over it, gives to the 

 whole scene an imposing air of grandeur, which few land- 

 scapes can boast. 



" The face of the Table Mountain has been compared to 

 the ruins of a fortification. From the bay, it has the ap- 

 pearance of two enormous bastions, supported by buttresses, 

 flanking an intermediate curtain. The upper region of the 

 mountain, about fifteen hundred feet in perpendicular height, 

 comprehending the mural precipice, consists of sandstone, 

 arranged in horizontal strata, and reposing on a base of 

 granite. Over the broken edges of these strata, the water, con- 

 densed from the atmosphere, is continually distilling in large 

 drops, which reflect the rays of the sun in all the colours of 

 the rainbow. In some parts it escapes in a continued stream, 

 and affords a most refreshing draught to those adventurers 

 whom curiosity prompts to explore the " cloud-capped sum- 

 mit " of the Tableland. 



" From the bottom of the precipice to the depth of five or 

 six hundred feet, the mountain consists of granite, the surface 

 laid bare, along the channel of one of the mountain streams. 

 Here it abuts against the vertically stratified clayslate, which 

 forms the base of the mountain, and of the valley beyond. At 

 the point of junction, numerous veins, ramifying in a thousand 

 ways, pass from the body of the granite into the schist, and 

 both of them are traversed bv large veins of Basalt. 



" Along the line that joins the Curtain to the West Bastion, 

 there runs a deep chasm, through which is the only path to 

 the top of the mountain on the side of Capetown. From the 



