Ch. XXIV.] FALSE BAY. 415 



Simon's Town is the number of Opuntias (Cacti) which grow 

 upon the rocks, a circumstance at least remarkable when it 

 is remembered that the Cactacese are an American order, un- 

 known in Africa. I believe, however, that having been im- 

 ported from America, they have found a suitable habitat 

 upon rocks of the Cape, and have readily become naturalized 

 there, and spread throughout the colony. The representative 

 orders, Crassulaceee and Euphorbiacese, however, abound 

 everywhere. Great aloes, also, with fruiting stems 20 feet 

 high — trees of Oleander and Casuarina, and other remark- 

 able vegetable forms, strike the eye as novel and interesting : 

 and among the abundant verdure at the foot of the hills 

 elegant herbaceous Amaryllids and Cape heaths (Ericaceae) 

 meet the eye in every direction. 



False Bay, seen from the Cape road which runs south- 

 ward from Simon's Bay, has the appearance of a vast lake, 

 closed in on the opposite side by a long line of craggy peaks, 

 which are misty and indistinct from distance, and which 

 bound the eastern side of the bay.- Instead, however, of 

 closing round the north side, they continue to run on in- 

 land with a northerly course as far as the eye can reach, 

 while the precipitous and rugged mountains on the western 

 side, which arise directly from the sea at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, also run northward and terminate in Table Mountain, 

 which slopes immediately upon Table Bay. Between these 

 the waters of False Bay wash upon a sloping sandy beach, 

 and a tolerably level plaia extends between the two ranges 

 for a considerable distance, as though it were at one time 

 deeper and of considerably greater extent than it is at 

 present. An indifferent road skirts the bases of the hills 

 on the western side towards Cape Town, which is, in many 

 places, diverted on to the sea-beach, and at high-tide the 



