14G THE WORLD. 



absorbed, a remarkable appearance of this sort is observed on 

 the Table Mountain at the Cape of Good Hope. " Its flattop, call- 

 ed the Table Land, is about two miles in length from east to west, 

 and of various breadths, but nowhere exceeding a mile. The 

 height is estimated at 3500 feet above the sea. It is a common 

 saying among the inhabitants of Cape Town, that when the 

 Devil spreads his table cloth upon the mountain you may look for 

 a strong south-east wind. In the whole system of meteorology 

 there is not a more infallible prognostic. The Devil's tablecloth is 

 a thin sheet of white vapor which is seen reaching over the edge 

 of the precipice, while the sky all around is clear and unclouded. 

 The rapidity of its descent, resembles that of water pouring over 

 the face of a rock. The air, at the same time begins to be agi- 

 tated in the valley, and in less than half an hour, the whole town 

 is involved in dust and darkness. Instantly the streets are de- 

 serted, every window and door is shut up, and Cape Town is as 

 still as if it were visited by the plague. Sometimes, instead of a 

 sheet of vapor an immense cloud envelopes the mountain, and 

 stretching out on all sides like a magnificent canopy, shades the 

 town and adjacent country from the sun. The inferior boundary 

 of this cloud is regulated, probably, by various circumstances, 

 among others, by the strength of the wind, and the temperature 

 of the air in the Table Valley. The influence of the latter is to 

 be inferred from the fact, that though the cloud never descends 

 more than half way into the hot parched amphitheatre of Cape 

 Town, it may be observed on the side of Camp's Bay, rolling 

 down in immense volumes to the very sea, over which it some- 

 times stretches farther than the eye can follow it. Nothing can 

 be more singular than the appearance of this cloud. It is con- 

 tinually rushing down to a certain point on the side of the moun- 

 tain and there vanishing. Fleeces are seen from time to time, 

 torn from its skirts by the strength of the wind, floating and 

 whirling, as it were in a vortex, over the town, and then gradu- 

 ally dissolving away. But the main body remains, as it were, 

 nailed to the mountain, and bids defiance to the utmost efforts of 

 the gale. There is a constant verdure maintained on this moun- 

 tain from the moisture deposited from the atmosphere 



