270 ACCOUNT OF THE STRUCTURE 



met with, has not hitherto occurred, it was thought right to 

 lay them before the Society ; and I have undertaken the ar- 

 rangment of the materials the more willingly, that the de- 

 scriptions, though coming forward without the accurate finish- 

 ing which the author alone could be expected to give them, 

 do great credit to his skill and judgment, and will, I am sure, 

 be received by the Society as a most promising indication of the 

 talents of a young and ardent Geologist, from whom much 

 important information may hereafter be expected. 



The Peninsula of the Cape is a narrow mountainous ridge, 

 stretching nearly north and south, for thirty or forty miles, and 

 connected on the east side, and near its northern extremity, 

 with the main body of Southern Africa by a flat sandy isth- 

 mus, about ten miles broad, having Table Bay on the north of 

 it, and the spacious indenture, or rather gulf of False Bay on 

 the south. The southern extremity of this peninsula projec- 

 ting into the sea, with False Bay on the east, and the ocean on 

 the south and west, is properly the Cape of Good Hope, and is 

 the most southern point of the African Continent. At this 

 point, the chain which constitutes the peninsula, though rug- 

 ged, is lower than at the north end, where it is terminated by 

 the Table Mountain, and two others, which form an amphi- 

 theatre, overlooking Table Bay, and opening to the north. 

 The sketch Plate XIII. represents the positions here referred, 

 to. 



Table Bay is open to the north and west, and is therefore an 

 unsafe station for ships while the sun is in the northern hemi- 

 sphere, and while- the wind blows strong, as it always does, at 

 that season, from the north-west. The ships then rendezvous 

 in False Bay, where they have complete shelter from the pre- 

 vailing wind.. The ship in which Mr Hall was, arrived on the 



coast 



