OF THE TABLE MOUNTAIN. 2*77 



Thus far Captain Hall ; and the concluding remark, so far 

 from requiring apology, seems to me a very fair interpretation 

 of the phenomena he has described. Conformably to this view 

 of the matter, I would only farther remark, that the phenomena 

 here described point out two separate epochas, distinguished by 

 very different conditions of the substances which now compose 

 the peninsula of the Cape. That peninsula, it now appears, 

 is a wall of granite, highest at the northern extremity, and 

 lowering gradually to the south ; faced, at its base, with grau- 

 wacky, and covered, at its top, with a platform of horizontal 

 sandstone. The penetration of the killas or grauwacky, by 

 veins from the mass of granite which it surrounds, proves that 

 the killas, though the superior rock, is of older formation than 

 the granite. The granite, therefore, is a mineral that has come 

 up from below into the situation it now occupies, and is not 

 one of which the materials have been deposited by the sea in any 

 shape, either mechanical or chemical. It is a species, there* 

 fore, of subterraneous lava, and the progeny of that active and 

 powerful element, which we know, from the history both of the 

 present and the past, has always existed in the bowels of the 

 earth. 



The introduction of the granite into the situation it now oc- 

 cupies, must have taken place while the whole was deep under 

 the level of the sea : this is evident from the covering of sand- 

 stone which lies on the granite, to the thickness of 1500 feet ; 

 for there can be no doubt whatever that this last was deposi- 

 ted by water. After this deposition, the whole must have been 

 lifted up, as Captain Hall supposes, with such quietness and re- 

 gularity, and in so great a body, as not to disturb or alter the re- 

 lative position of the parts. Thus, the granite is shewn, I think 

 with great probability, to be newer than one of the rocks in- 

 cumbent on it, and older than the other. I know not that we 

 have ever before had an example of a fact which so directly ascer* 



Vol, VII. P. IL Nn tains 



