276 THE lion's head. 



stunted vegetation ; while the upper part of Lion's Head 

 and Table Mountain, though much more elevated, display 

 rich and more vigorous shrubs.* It is composed of clay- 

 slate, greywacke, and sandstone. The clay-slate and grey- 

 wacke appear to alternate, and the sandstone rests upon 

 the slate. The slate is distinctly stratified ; the strata on 

 one side of the hill dip to the north, on the opposite to the 

 south, and in the middle or centre of the hill they are 

 ' nearly perpendicular. Numerous veins of compact quartz 

 traverse the strata in all directions. A quarry, which has 

 been wrought to a considerable extent on the east side of 

 the hill, exhibits a fine view of the structure of the clay- 

 slate, and in one place there is a bed of sandstone in the 

 slate. The sandstone, which is of a yellowish-gray colour, 

 is composed of grains of quartz, with disseminated felspar 

 and scales of mica. 



Lion's Head. — The strata of clay-slate continue to the 

 base of the Lion's Head. Here they are succeeded by 

 strata of compact gneiss, composed of gray felspar and 

 quartz, with much dark-brown mica in small scales. It 

 much resembles the gneiss interposed between granite and 

 clay-slate in the transition mountains in the south of Scot- 

 land ; as at Criffel, and near New Galloway in Kirkcud- 

 brightshire. The gneiss is distinctly stratified, and the 

 strata in some places dip under the next rock, which is gra- 

 nite ; in others, they dip from it. Numerous transitions are 

 observed from the granite into the gneiss ; and in the same 

 bed of compact gneiss, one part will be gneiss, while another 

 will be granite. Beds of granite, in some places, appear 

 to alternate with the gneiss. Veins of granite, from a 

 few inches in width to several feet, traverse the gneiss and 

 clay-slate, and are observed projecting from the body of the 

 granite, and shooting among the neighbouring slaty strata. 



* Constantia, so celebrated for its wine, is situated at the bottom of 

 the range leading from Cape Town to Simon's Bay, where sandstone is 

 the predominating rock ; and the soil of the farms of the neighbouring 

 ground appears to be composed of it, in a state of decomposit on, and of 

 vegetable mould. That it is the sandstone which essentially contributes 

 to the excellence of the soil Dr. Adam is inclined to believe, from having 

 observed several spots at the foot of tlie same range, nearer Cape Town, 

 with a soil richer in vegetabe mould, but whose produce was held much 

 infenor. The principal rock there was granite, and its superincumbent 

 sandstone has sufTered less decomposition than that adjoining to Con 

 Btantia, 



