OF THE TABLE MOUNTAIN. 275" 



sented with considerable relief. From the same cause, the bot- 

 tom of every excavation is covered with a little beach of 

 quartz pebbles, which have belonged to strata now worn 

 away. 



" The day was remarkably fine, so that the prospect from the 

 top of the mountain could hardly be seen to greater advan- 

 tage than at this moment. It was, indeed, uncommonly grand, 

 and the interest was heightened by the novelty of the objects, 

 and, perhaps, not a little by the reflection, that the point on 

 which we stood is so remai'kable in the constitution of the 

 earth's surface, and so memorable in the history of nautical dis- 

 covery. A carpet of the richest heath embelhshed the sum- 

 mit, and I sadly regretted, that my knowledge of botany was 

 not sufficient to enable me to describe the beautiful varieties 

 of that plant for which the Cape is so justly celebrated. 



" The same structure that is found in the Table Moun- 

 tain, extends to two others in its vicinity ; particularly the 

 upper part of the Lion's Head, which consists of sand- 

 stone. Under the sandstone is found granite ; and on the 

 north side, when you descend farther, you come to killas 

 in vertical beds, which extend farther to the eastward, forming 

 the Lion's Rump, where the strata are not strictly vertical, but 

 incline to the north, at an angle of about 8° from the perpen- 

 dicular 5 their direction or stretch is across tlie peninsula, or 

 from east to west, as at the Table Mountain. I had not time 

 to undertake a particular examination of the Devil's Peak^ 

 The upper part of it is certainly composed of sandstone ; the 

 junction of which with the granite is distinctly visible from 

 many places. 



" The same structure, with the variation of some circumstan- 

 ces, seems to take place all over the peninsula. The line of 

 the junction of the granite and the sandstone, lowers in its le- 

 vel, however, as you approach the southern extremity, and the 



killas 



