87 



water is not large, nor does it fall perpendicularly, but it rushes down 

 a narrow, bushy gorge, from a considerable height, at an angle of 

 about 85 degrees. The ravine is crowned by cliffs, and decorated by 

 Todea africana and several other ferns, abundance of brambles, some 

 low trees, and several heaths. By the path ascending to this spot, 

 which passes a deserted, square signal-station, Anemone capensis, 

 Antholyza aethiopica, and several other handsome plants were in 

 flower. The view of Table Bay and Cape Town, with the adjacent 

 sandy flats, and the more distant mountains, is very fine from these 

 hills. The mountains were still capped with snow. On the lower 

 grounds many pretty plants were in flower; among them were various 

 species of Lachenalia, Morsea, Homeria, Hesperantha and Gladio- 

 lus. The arid parts of the country seem full of small bulbous roots ; 

 in the spring, which is now commencing, they send up their beauti- 

 ful blossoms in profusion. Many of them have fragrant flowers." — 

 p. 80. 



Table Mountain. — " In company with W. H. Harvey I ascended 

 Table Mountain, which is 3,582 feet high. This mountain is chiefly 

 composed of sandstone, which rests on argillaceous rock, below which 

 granite emerges in several places. In one place, near a deserted 

 house called Plaat Klip, Flat Rock, there is a small vein of basalt. 

 The lower sandstone is reddish ; the upper, forming the cliffs, very 

 white and compact. The rain which falls on this mountain, filtering 

 through the sandstone, forms numerous rivulets, several of which de- 

 scend in cascades, among the bushy rocks of the valleys of the mid- 

 dle region of the mountain. One of these rivulets is brought into 

 Cape Town, under a covered conduit, for the supply of the town. — 

 Table Mountain is ascended by a narrow, stony gorge, that passes 

 behind a thin portion of the cliff. The top of this mountain, in com- 

 mon with others on the south coast, is often enveloped in fog, parti- 

 cularly when the wind blows from the south-east. These fogs look 

 from below like milk-white clouds, with margins pouring over the 

 edge of the cliffs ; they are very prevalent in summer. A fog coming 

 on, we speedily descended, having gathered a yellow Disa, a plant of 

 the Orchis tribe, on the top, and a pink one, with some heaths, in the 

 gorge ; and the elegant blue Agathea parvifolia, which resembles an 

 Aster, among the bushes below. 



" In a walk on the ascent of Table Mountain, we noticed a fine 

 Leucodendron, forming an erect bush, four feet high ; the flowers al- 

 most equalled those of a Magnolia, the pale bracteas of the Leuco- 

 dendron supplying the place of petals. A singular scarlet parasite, 



