552 BOTANICAL EXCURSIONS 
whole extent of the bay and of the low country, even to the 
distant chain of the Stellenbosch mountains, which rose sharp 
and clear above it. The top of the mountain was at this 
time very dry, more so than Harvey had ever known it 
before, and consequently we were less successful in botaniz- 
ing than we had expected ; yet I added upwards of twenty 
species to my collection. I have no doubt that one might 
ascend this mountain a hundred times and find some new 
plants every time. 
The environs of Cape Town are not interesting to a mine- 
ralogist. The lower part of Table Mountain, to the height 
of perhaps 1500 feet, and the greater part of the Lion's Head, 
consist of granite, which is best seen on the ** Kloof” road 
between these mountains, and in the descent towards 
Kamp's Bay. It is whitish, coarse-grained, rather porphy- 
ritic, in structure, and very subject to decomposition ; in this 
state, itis cut by therains into strangely deep chasms, as may 
be observed on the road aforesaid. I believe no extraneous 
minerals are found in this granite (note D). In the ascent of 
Table Mountain by the usual path, the granite is almost con- 
from view by inhumerable, large, loose blocks of sand- 
stone, which are strewed over the heathy slopes; yet it may 
be traced up the bed of the stream which runs over the Platte 
Klip, to about a hundred feet below the miniature waterfall 
already mentioned. Here the granite is succeeded by hori- 
zontal beds of a dark reddish or brownish, micaceous, more 
or less schistose sandstone; and this, a little higher up, 
passes into the large-grained, hard, white, quartz-sandstone, 
forming the whole of those magnificent cliffs which give such 
a peculiar character to the mountain. The thickness of this 
sandstone cannot be much less than 2000 feet. Its strata 
are thick, remarkably regular, and in appearance quite hori- 
zontal. Towards the top of the mountain, it assumes some- 
what of a conglomerate character, containing large ‘round 
pebbles of white quartz. 
On the Lion’s Head, only a comparatively small portion 
of this sandstone has been left, capping the granite, and 
