CHAPTER VI. 



CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 



Aspect and Formation of the Country. Simons Bay. Appearance of the 

 Vegetation. Tlje Road to Cape Town. The Silver Tree. Habits of 

 Baboons. The Rock Rabbit. Habits of Rodent Moles. Kitchen 

 Middens. Burial Places of Natives. Antelopes. An Ostrich Farm. 

 Tracks of Animals in the Sand. Great Variety of Flowering Plants. 

 Clawless Otter. Land Planarians. Chameleon. Jackass Penguins. 

 Bdellostonia. Rare Whale with Long Tusks. Peripatus capensis, 

 the Ancestor of Insects. The Turacou. 



Simons Bay, October 28th to December 17th, 1873.— We 



anchored at Simons Bay on October 28th, but found ourselves 

 in quarantine because we had had yellow fever on board at 

 Bahia. 



The Cape of Good Hope lies at the end of a long narrow 

 promontory running nearly north and south, and forming, 

 between itself and Cape Hangklip on the east, a large bay 

 known as False Bay, whilst at its point of origin from the 

 mainland and on its east side, is Table Bay with Cape Town 

 at its head. 



The promontory has a sort of backbone of mountains, which 

 in some places come right down steep into the sea, in others 

 are flanked by more or less extensive sand- flats. The moun- 

 tains are highest towards the northern extremity of the ridge 

 which terminates in the far-famed Table Mountain, 3,550 feet 

 in height. Constantia Berg, about one-quarter of the distance 

 from this point to the Cape, is 3,200 feet high; the remaining 

 mountains range from about 2,000 to 2,500 feet. 



The sandy flats are towards the southern part of the pro- 

 montory almost confined to its Western side, the steep slopes 

 of the mountains on the False Bay side being for the most 

 part washed directly by the sea, but at the head of False Bay 

 a wide extent of flat sandy plain extends right across the head 

 of the bay and round the foot of Table Mountain northwards. 

 This plain is known as the " Cape Flats." 



The Cape of Good Hope is at the tip of the promontory, 



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