TRAVELS IN 
that compose it, the indentations of the coast, all formed in 
one direction, and the manner in which the fragile rocks break 
off perpendicularly from time to time along that coast, are 
indications that sufficiently warrant this conclusion. 
It may also be observed, with regard to the UAguillas Bank, 
that the stream of the current strikes strongest just along the 
outer margin, which I suppose to have formerly been the old 
coast of Africa, not only because the soundings along this 
margin are deeper than on any other part of the bank, but be- 
cause the bottom is fine white sand, such as is usually found 
on the sea shores ; and most of the interior parts of the bank, 
and especially where it approaches the projecting points of the 
coast, are composed of rock, and the coarse fragments of com- 
minuted sand-stone. 
But the strongest arguments which have been advanced in 
favour of the Cape isthmus having, at no great period of 
time, been covered with the sea, rest on the sea-shells that are 
said to be found in the sand that is accumulated on its sur- 
face. Such shells may exist, though I never saw them ex- 
cept on the shores of the bays ; but by admitting their exist- 
ence we prove nothing, as whole strata of them are found 
buried in the sides of the Lion's Hill, many hundred feet above 
the level of the sea. These shells were not brought into that 
situation by the waves of the ocean, but by birds. There is 
scarcely a, sheltered cavern in the sides of the mountains, that 
rise immediately from the sea, where living shell fish may not 
be found any day in the year. Crows even, and vultures, as 
well as aquatic birds, detach the shell-fish from the rocks, and 
