202 Voyage of the Novara. 



Favoured by introductions to the most eminent men of science, 

 who received us in the most friendly way, we succeeded, in the 

 course of a few weeks, in acquiring rich and valuable scientific 

 collections, and forming important connections for the future 

 supply of our museums. A most cordial reception was accorded 

 us by Mr. Julius Mosenthal, the Austrian Consul, and the head 

 of one of the leading mercantile firms of the colony. In his 

 hospitable house, German music and German song made us 

 entirely forget that we were sojourning thousands of miles 

 from home at the southernmost point of Africa. 



Cape Town is oblong in plan, with long wide streets, inter- 

 secting at right angles. It is destitute of imposing buildings ; 

 a commercial place, with pretty dwelling-houses, built in the 

 English style and comfortably furnished, all of a light brown 

 hue, owing to the dust, which, in south-east or north-west 

 winds, envelopes the town in whirling clouds, and may indeed 

 be considered the only plague of this healthy delightful climate. 

 The English element, which, with the stereotyped customs of 

 its life and its equitable laws, possesses, wherever it obtains a 

 footing, so powerful an influence, has almost entirely super- 

 seded the Dutch, which continues to exist only in the lonely 

 farmhouses far in the interior. There is scarcely anything 

 remaining to indicate that Cape Town was founded by the 

 Dutch ; and were it not for the yellow Malay faces, with their 

 gaudy head-coverings or umbrella-shaped straw hats, and the 

 tawny mestizoes, who remind us of the aboriginal inhabitants, 

 and give a completely foreign colouring, one might easily fancy 



