IN SOUTH AFRICA. 551 
towards Kamp’s Bay, but scarcely practicable. Near the 
head of this is a small but perennial spring, the only one on 
the summit, and well-known to pic-nic parties. 
A large part of the surface of this table plain is a kind of 
pavement of flat or rounded rocks, with herbage in the in- 
terstices ; other parts are swampy, and covered with moss, 
or with tall rushes and fern. There are no trees, and few 
shrubs above two or three feet high, but the variety of plants 
is surprising. Many of them are peculiar to these elevated 
regions (note B), several even to this one mountain, while some 
range from the base to the summit without variation. Several 
of the most common European mosses and lichens (note C) 
grow here among all these exotic forms. 
The view from the top of the mountain is extensive enough, 
but of no remarkable beauty. Cape Town, seen from hence, 
looks, as has been justly remarked, like a town built of 
cards. 
Clouds approaching from the S.E. warned us to return 
to the gorge; and we had not long reached a safe station, 
before the south-easter began to be felt, the clouds came 
drifting fast over the mountain, and it soon became exces- 
sively cold. While we were collecting mosses and lichens in 
the pass, where they grew in great abundance and variety, 
the wind increased, the clouds descended lower on the moun- 
tain, and we were enveloped in a kind of “Scotch mist,” 
which soon thickened into a pouring rain. The descent was 
almost as fatiguing, and required as much time as the ascent, 
great care being necessary to avoid slipping among the loose 
rocks. We were wet to the skin long before we got down, 
but in the valley the dust was flying. 
I ascended Table Mountain a second time on the 10th of 
November, again in company with Mr. Harvey. We set 
out from his house at the same time as on the former oc- 
casion ; a thick bank of mist then lay across the face of the 
mountain; not, however, reaching to the top; but when we 
looked down from the gorge, the scene was very singular 
and striking. An ocean of dense white fog covered the 
