26 Letters from J. MacGillivray, Esq. 



procuring a boat, prevented me from dredging as often as I could 

 have wished. As it was I met with very indifferent success. Some 

 curious Crustacea eame up — species of Leucosia, Macropodia, 

 Hymenosoma, Inachus ?, &c. ; but the mollusca were very few in 

 number, consisting chiefly of solitary representatives of Bullia, 

 Nassa, Turritella, Tellina and Turbo*. The rocky shores of 

 False Bay furnished very little variety of shells, although the 

 detritus on the beach shows that many fine ones exist there. 

 The Patella are the most numerous, and some attain a large size. 

 In the pools I procured a few Asteriadce, and an Echinus [R. 

 remarkable for the variety of colours (from deep blue to sandy 

 gray) which it presents. Two species of Comatula were also 

 found, but I had no fresh water at hand into which to plunge the 

 specimens, consequently they broke up into small fragments be- 

 fore I reached the ship. 



In the neighbourhood of Simon's Town the slope of the sand- 

 stone range, stretching between Cape Point and Table Mountain, 

 extends as far as the shore, which, when not sandy, is formed by 

 projecting masses of syenite. There is consequently little level 

 ground and scarcely any susceptible of cultivation, the whole 

 being thinly covered with bushes of Proteacece and Ericea. Me- 

 sembryanthemum edule is the prevailing herbaceous plant on the 

 sandy flats, and harbours a small Helix [R. 192] . A Cyclostomaf, 

 two Helices, and a Pupa are abundant about the roots of bushes, 

 but nearly all my specimens were dead. Birds are numerous ; 

 every clump of flowers attracts numbers of beautiful sun-birds, 

 chiefly Cinnyris chalybea, and in the Admiral's garden I was 

 pleased to see a number of the pensile nests of a kind of Ploceus 

 dangling from the fir-trees. Baboons (Papio cynocephalus) are 

 plentiful on the hills, which also harbour numbers of the Hyrax 

 capensis, and on the low sandy grounds Batkyergus maritimus 

 burrows like a mole, and the pretty little Mus Pumilio forms long 

 runs among the bushes. 



One day I ascended Table Mountain, for the double purpose of 

 stretching my legs and of procuring some Helices which I had 

 found near the summit in 1842. Scarcely a plant was in flower 

 — even the ferns were nearly all burnt up, but the patches of 

 Leucodendron argenteum looked as fresh as ever. Here and else- 

 where at the Cape I have often been struck with the strong re- 

 semblance between the vegetation of the barren, sandy and stony 

 tracts, and that of similar spots in Australia. The extensive ge- 



* Among these were Nassa pallida, Bullia laevigata, Turbo Sarmaticus, 

 Trochus merula, Purpura laginula, Patella pectinafa, Patella monopsis, 

 Tellina pulchella and Cardita concamerata. 



f C. Listeri. 



