SOUTHERN AFRICA. 33 
comes in Its way. Mufquitoes are lefs troublelome here than 
in moft warm climates, nor does their bite caufe much inflam- 
mation ; but a fmall fancl fly, fo minute as fcarcely to be vifible, 
is a great torment to thofe who may have occafion to crofs 
among the fhrubbery of the fandy ifthmus. Lizards of various 
kinds, among which is the cameleon, are very abundant ; and 
fmall land-turtles are every where crawling about in the high 
roads and on the naked plains. Scorpions, fcolopendras, and 
large black fpiders, are among the noxious infeds of the Cape j 
and almoft all the fnakes of the country are venemous. 
The firft appearance of fo (lupendous a mafs of naked rock 
as the Table Mountain cannot fail to arreft, for a time, the 
attention of the moft indifferent obferver of nature from all 
inferior objeds, and muft particularly intereft that of the mine- 
ralogifi;. As a defcriptlon of this mountain will, with few varia- 
tions, anfwer to that of almoft all the great ranges in Southern 
Africa, it may not perhaps be thought too tedious to enter into 
a detail of its form, dimenfions, and conftituent parts. 
The name of Table Land is given by feamen to every hill or 
mountain whofe fummit prefents to the eye of the obferver a 
line parallel to the horizon. The north front of the Table 
Mountain, directly facing the town, is a horizontal line, or very 
nearly fo, of about two miles in length. The bold face, that 
rifes almoft at right angles to meet this line, is fupported, as it 
were, by a number of projedlng buttreffes that rife out of the 
plain, and fall in with the front a little higher than midway 
from the bafe. Thefe, and the divifion of the front, by two 
F great 
