COLONY OP THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 



THIS territory is the Dutch settlement at the most southern ex- 

 tremity of Afriea, extending about 550 miles in length, from west 

 to east, and 315 in breadth from south to north. It lies between 30 

 and 34 and a half degrees of south latitude, and 18 and 28 of east 

 longitude, and is divided into four districts: the Cape district; that 

 of Stelienbosch and Drakensteen ; that of Zwellendam, and that, of 

 Graaf Reynet. 



" Of this extensive territory," says Mr. Barrow,* " a very great 

 portion may be considered as an unprofitable waste, unfit for any sort 

 of culture, or even to be employed as pasture for the support of cattle. 

 Level plains, consisting of a hard impenetrable surface of clay, thinly- 

 sprinkled over with crystalised sand, condemned to perpetual drought, 

 and producing only a few straggling tufts of acrid, saline, and succu- 

 Sent plants, and chains of vast mountains that are either totally naked, 

 or clothed in parts with sour grasses only, or such plants as are 

 noxious to animal life, compose at least one half of the colony of the 

 Cape. Two of these chains of mountains, called the Zwarte -Berg, or 

 Black Mountain, and the Neuveldt Gebergte., inclose together the.great 

 Karro, or dry desert, extending nearly 300 miles in length and 80 in 

 breadth, and uninhabited by any human creature. Behind the town 

 called Cape-town, are the mountains called the Table Mountain, the 

 Devil's Mountain, the Lion's Head, and the Lion's Back. The Table 

 Mountain is a stupendous mass of naked rock, the north front of 

 which, directly facing the town, is a horizontal line, or very nearly so., 

 about two miles in length. The bold face that rises almost at right 

 angles to meet this line has the appearance of the ruined walls of 

 some gigantic fortress ; and these walls rise above the level of Table 

 Bay to the height of 3582 feet. The Devil's Mountain on the one 

 aide, and the Lion's Head on the other, make, in fact, with the Table 8 

 but one mountain : the height of the former is 3315, and that of the 

 latter 2160 feet. The Devil's Mountain is broken into irregular 

 points, but the upper part of the Lion's Head is a solid mass of stone, 

 rounded and fashioned like a work of art, and resembling very much, 

 from some points of view, the dome of St. Paul's placed upon a high 

 cone-shaped hill. From these mountains descend several rivulets 

 which fall into Table Bay, and False Bay ; but the principal rivers of 

 the colony are the Berg or Mountain river, the Breede or Broad river, 

 called also the Orange river, which has its periodical inundations like 

 the Nile, and its cataracts ; the Sunday river, and the Great Fish river, 

 which is the boundary of the colony to the east. 



The climate of the Cape appears to be in general free from the ex« 

 tremes of either heat or cold, and not in reality unhealthy. It has 

 been usual with the Dutch to consider the year as consisting of two 



* Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa, in 1797 and 1798. 



