550 BOTANICAL EXCURSIONS 
as we proceeded, and presently we reached a high rock of 
reddish sandstone, over which trickles a stream, very dimi- 
nutive at this season, but forming a pretty little waterfall in 
the winter. I afterwards frequently visited this rock, which 
is the locality of several interesting plants (note A). A little 
way above it, begins the great ravine leading to the summit. 1 
have already said that the face of "Table Mountain looks 
somewhat like part of the wallof a fortress with two bas- 
tions: the ravine in question is in the re-entering angle be- 
tween the right-hand, or N.W. bastion, and the curtain ; it 
is of considerable width at the bottom, but narrows conti- 
nually upwards, till at the top there is a space of only three 
or four yards between the walls of rock. The ascent is as 
Steen as it can well be without being precipitous, and 
every where encumbered with loose angular fragments of 
rock, which bruise the feet, and are very apt to give way 
under you. Long tufts of coarse grasses and tough pliant 
rushes grow in the interstices of the stones, affording a 
useful support to the hands. Heaths, ferns, mosses, and a 
variety of small shrubs, (several of them peculiar to this 
situation), decorate the crevices of the grand mural cliffs of 
quartz-sandstone which bound the ravine. 
At half past six, we reached the summit, which is 3,582 
feet above the sea. The sun was now up, and the air around 
and above us quite clear, but it felt chill and damp, and the 
herbage was dripping wet; I could have fancied myself in 
quite a different latitude fron Cape Town. The summit of 
Table Mountain, though varied by rocky mounds in some 
and marshy depressions in others, is on the whole 
remarkably level, and forms a narrow plain, rather more 
than two miles long, with a general direction from N.W. to 
S.E.; at both extremities, as well as on the side towards the 
town, it is bounded by precipices; but the descent towards 
the S.W. is less abrupt, forming a succession of terraces. 
It is possible to ascend on horseback from this side, but by 
a very circuitous route. At the N.W. extremity, not far 
from the cleft by which we ascended, is another, going down 
