32 
TRAVELS IN 
the fhores of the bays, but fuch only as are commonly known. 
The fliells that moftly abound are of the univalve tribe. The 
patella genus is the moft plentiful ; and that large, beautiful, 
pearly fhell, the Hal'iotis Midce^ is very common. Cyprcea^ Vo- 
lutes^ and Cones are alfo abundant. All thefe are collefted on the 
coaft near the Cape, and burnt into lime, there being no lime- 
ftone on the whole peninfula, and none worth the labor of get- 
ting, and the expenditure of fuel neceffary for burning it, in 
any part of the colony. 
During the winter feafon whales are very plentiful in all the 
bays of Southern Africa, and give to the filhermen a much eafier 
opportunity of taking them than in the open fea. They are 
fmalier and lefs valuable than thofe of the fame kind in the 
northern feas, but fufficiently fo to have engaged the attention 
of a Company lately eftablifhed here for carrying on a fifhery 
in Table Bay. They run in general from fifty to fixty feet in 
length, and produce from fix to ten tons of oil each. The 
bone of fuch fmall fifh is not very valuable. It is remarked 
that all thofe which have yet been caught were females ; and 
it is fuppofed that they refort to the bays as places of fhelter to 
depofit their young. Seals were once plentiful on the rocky 
iflands of Falfe bay, as is ftill that curious animal the penguin, 
forming the link of connedion between the feathered and the 
finny tribe. 
Infeds of almoft every defcription abound in the fummer 
months, and particularly a fpecies of locuft which infefts the 
gardens, devouring, if not kept under, every green thing that 
comes 
