408 Transactions of the South African Philosoiyhical Society. 



and streams — requires further investigation. It will hardly be 

 possible to investigate all the mountain ranges on which they occur, 

 for they often cover all the higher parts from Table Mountain to the 

 Zwartebergen and the northern end of the Cedarbergen, but a 

 beginning might be made with Table Mountain. 



If the days on which the mountain is covered with clouds were 

 recorded, if daily gaugings of some of the streams on and around 

 the mountain were taken, and if then after a number of years these 

 records were compared with each other and the rainfall, it would be 

 quite possible to demonstrate the amount of this influence. 



My object in undertaking these experiments was a different one. 

 I stated at the beginning of my paper that I wanted to ascertain 

 more exactly the climatic conditions under which the plants on the 

 mountains existed. That side of the question has been answered. 

 Their summer is not dry. Their climate is that of a swamp — a per- 

 manent swamp in winter, a periodical swamp in summer, which 

 dries up during a long spell of fine weather, but becomes soaking 

 wet during the days of the south-east cloud. These results explain 

 why such luxuriant and thickly set vegetation prevails on the upper 

 parts of these mountains, why shrubs 6 to 8 feet high crown the 

 summit of Devil's Peak, why thickets of beautiful heaths 4 to 5 feet 

 high grow on the top of the Jonkershoek peaks, why there is a little 

 forest of yellow wood, Kiggelaria, Olinia, and other trees on the top 

 of Klapmuts Hill, why the cedar grows only at a certain level of 

 the Cedarbergen, why Proteas and heaths abound on the Zwarte- 

 bergen, and why there are little lakes, even late in summer, on the 

 top of Table Mountain as well as close to the summit of Dutoit's 

 Peak. 



It was my object to understand these facts and to be able to 

 explain them to others. This I think I have done. The purely 

 meteorological side of the question I leave to others for further 

 investigation. 



