THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 



45 



moft perpendicular. The South end is likewife fteep, and its '776. 



^ , ^' November. 



greatelt height IS there; from whence it declines gently to * u ' 



the North part, by which we afcended to its top, and had 

 an extenfive view of the whole country. 



Its circumference, I think, muft be at leafl half a mite ; 

 as it took us above half an hour to walk round it, including 

 every allowance for the bad road, and flopping a little. At 

 its highefl part, which is the South end, comparing it with 

 a known objefl, it feems to equal the dome of St. Paul's 

 church. It is one uninterrupted mafs or ftone, if we except 

 fome fifFures, or rather impreffions, not above three or four 

 feet deep, and a vein which runs acrofs near its North end. 

 It is of that fort of ftone called, by Mineralogifts, Saxum 

 conglutinatiiw, and confifts chiefly of pieces of coarfe quartz 

 and glimtner, held together by a clayey cement. But the vein 

 which crofTes it, though of the fame materials, is much com- 

 pacfter. This vein is not above a foot broad or thick; and 

 its furface is cut into little fquares or oblongs, difpofed 

 obliquely, which makes it look like the remains of fome 

 artificial work. But I could not obferve whether it pene- 

 trated far into the large rock, or was only fuperficial. la 

 defcending, \\e found at its foot a very rich black mould; 

 and on the fides of the hills, fome trees of a confiderable 

 fize, natives of the place, which are a fpecies of oka *. 



In 



* It is flrange that neither Kolben nor de la Caille fhould have thought the To-u>ir 

 a/ iJizZ^/os worthy of a particular defcription. The former [Vol.11, p. 52,53, Eng- 

 lifh Tranflation] only mentions it as a high mountain. The latter contents liimfeif 

 with telling us, that it is a very low hillock, jin tres has wonUcuk. Voyage de la Caille^ 

 p. 341. We are much obliged to Mr. Anderfon for his very accurate account of this 

 remarkable rock, which agrees with Mr. Sonnerat's, who was at tiie Cape of Good 

 Hope fo late as 1781. His words are, " La Montagne de la Perle, merite d'etre ob- 

 " lervee. Cell un des plus hautcs des environs du Cap, E!le n'elt ccrr.pofce que. 



" d'uu 



