SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
61 
they contain alfo cubic pieces of feltfpar, and feem to be bound 
together by plates of a clayey iron ftone. All the ftones of this 
defcription appear to have been formed round a nucleus, as by 
the action of the air and weather they fall to pieces in large 
concentric laminae. The Pearl is acceffible on the northern 
fide, but is nearly perpendicular on all the reft. This Hoping 
fide is more than a thoufand feet, and the perpendicular alti- 
tude about four hundred feet above the fummit of the moun- 
tain, and the circumference of its bafe is a full mile. Near the 
top it is quadrife£ted by two clifts, croffing at right angles, in 
which were growing a number of beautiful aloes, feveral cryp- 
togamous and other plants. A great part of the flanting fide 
was covered with a fpecies of green lichen. Down the perpen- 
dicular fides were immenfe rifts, as if the mafs had been torn 
afunder by its own weight. The Diamond is the higher block, 
but lefs bulky, and, being cone-lhaped, is difficult and danger- 
ous to afcend. 
The mountain of the Paarl furniflies a fine field for the bota- 
nift. The plants are very varied and wonderfully luxuriant. 
The wild olive of the Cape feems to have here attained its 
greateft fize, and the dark-green foliage is finely contrafted with 
the elegant tribe of heaths, fome of which flioot up to the fize 
and form of trees. The fruit of the wild olive is fmall and 
acrid ; but the wood is clofe-grained, fhaded, and takes a polifh 
not unlike that of walnut. A great variety of that genus of 
plants to which botanifts have given the name of Protea, deco- 
rate the fides of the Paarl Mountain. Of thefe, one of the moft 
numerous and moft confpicuous was the mellifera, called here 
the 
