44 



A VOYAGE TO 



>776. laid out in a tafte fomewhat difTerent from any other we 



November. . . -i r ^ • i • 



< „— ' faw. In the evening we arrived at a rarm-lioule, which is 



the firfl in the cultivated tradt called the Pearl. We had, at 

 the fame time, a view of Drakenftein, the third colony of 

 this country, which lies along by the foot of the lofty hills 

 already mentioned, and contains feveral farms or planta- 

 tions, not very extenlive. 



Tuefday 19. J went, on the 19th in the forenoon, in quell: of plants 

 and infe6ls, which I found almofl as fcarce as at Stellen- 

 bofh ; but I met with more flirubs or fmall trees, naturally 

 produced, in the valleys, than in any part of the country I 

 had hitherto feen. 



In the afternoon, we went to fee a ftone of a remarkable 

 fize, called by the inhabitants the Tov»rer of Babylon, or 

 the Pearl Diamond *. It lies, or Hands, upon the top of 

 fome low hills, at the foot of which our farm-houfe was 

 fituated ; and though the road to it is neither very fteep nor 

 rugged, we were above an hour and a half in walking to ir,^ 

 It is of an oblong fhape, rounded on the top, and lies nearly^ 

 South and North. The Eafl: and Weft fides are fteep, and aU 



* In the Philofophical Tranfaclions, Vol. Ixviii. Part I. p, 102. we have a Letter 

 from Mr. Anderfon to Sir John Pringle, defcribing this remarkable ftone. The ac- 

 count fcnt home from the Cape, and read before the Royal Society, is much the famo 

 with that now publiftled, but rather fuller. In particular, he tells Sir John, that he 

 went to fee it at Mr, Majfon's defire, who, probably, had not had an opportunity of 

 fafRciently examining it himfelf. In the account of his journies, above referred to, 

 J). 270, he only fays, " il)erc are two large foUd rocks on the Perel Berg, each of which 

 (he believes) Is 7nore than a mile In circumference at the hafe, and upwards of two hundred 

 feet high. Their furfaces are nearly fmooth, without chink or fiffures ; and they are found 

 to be a f pedes of granite, different from that which compofes the neighbouring mountains." 



Mr. Anderfon having, with his Letter to Sir John Pringle, alfo fent home a fpe- 

 cimen of the rock, it was examined by Sir William Hamilton, whofe opinion is, that 

 ** this ftngular, Immcnfe fragment of granite, mojl probably has been ralfed by a volcanic 

 ixplofon, or fome fuch caufe." See his Letter to Sir John Pringle, annexed to Mr. An- 

 iferfon's, in the Philofophical Tranfaflioas. 



4 mod 



