Simon's town. 29 



weather throug'hout was such that during the period 

 of twenty-one days the sounding- boats were able to 

 work on six only^ — the other fine days were devoted 

 to swinging" the ships for mag-netical purposes. It 

 was also intended to survey the Whittle shoal in 

 False Bay, but when we sailed, the weather was so 

 thick and unsettled, that Capt. Stanley was reluc- 

 tantly obhg-ed to g-ive it up. 



Simon's ToA\'n is a small strag-gling place of 

 scarcely anj^ importance, except in connection with 

 the naval establishment kept up here— dockyard, 

 hospital, &c. — this being the head-quarters of the 

 Cape station. It is distant fi-om Cape Town twenty- 

 three miles. The neighbourhood is singularly dreary 

 and barren, with comparatively httle level ground, 

 and scarcely any susceptible of cultivation. I have 

 often been struck with the great general similarity 

 between the barren and sandy tracts of this district, 

 and many parts of New South Wales, where sand- 

 stone is the prevailing rock. In both countries 

 there are the same low scrubby bushes, at the Cape 

 consisting of Heaths and Protese, and in Australia 

 of Epacridse and Banksise, — the last the honey- 

 suckles of the Colonists. Even the beautiful sun- 

 birds of the Cape, frequenting especially the flowers 

 of the Protese, are represented by such of the Aus- 

 tralian honeysuckers as resort to the Banksiae. 



We found the Cape Colony suffering from the 

 long continuance of the Caffre war. As a natural 

 consequence, the price of everything had risen, and 



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