472 ACCIDENTS FROM SUDDEN SQUALLS. 



and most of its streets rise steeply from the water's 

 edge; its beetling precipices rise almost perpendicu- 

 larly immediately behind the houses; severe storms 

 in the dry season are always attended by intense whirl- 

 winds of dust in its streets, which render locomotion, 

 to say the least, disagreeable, not only sand but small 

 pebbles being driven against the face. 



Thus we see that even in this phenomenally stormy 

 region there is always some warning, provided people 

 keep a sharp look-out for indications of danger. It is 

 so almost everywhere : lives are lost, in general, through 

 simple want of care and because no look-out is kept. 

 In the open sea, of course, the advance of a heavy 

 squall is indicated by the white-topped waves, and a 

 good officer has generally time to let go his sails 

 before his ship is struck by it. While we were at 

 Cape Town, a notable instance of want of care in such 

 matters took* place. A coasting schooner proceeding 

 eastwards was suddenly struck by one of these violent 

 squalls of which we have spoken. She was blown clean 

 over in an instant, and turned bottom up. Out of a 

 crew of seven men on board, if we remember rightly, 

 either five or six were drowned. The survivor or sur- 

 vivors clung to the keel, and were rescued in a very 

 exhausted condition, when hope seemed to have almost 

 fled. 



In navigating large lakes therefore, in canoes or open 

 boats, these elements of risk should never any more than 

 at sea be lost sight of. Ancient records show, for instance, 

 that the American Red Indian tribes inhabiting the shores 

 of the great lakes always journeyed along the margins 



3300 feet high to the left of Table Mountain was known to the early 

 navigators as "The Mountain of the Winds." 



