SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
375 
Good Hope to the Gulph of Benin, under the equinoctial 
line, an extent through which it is more than probable, the 
ftratified mountains of fand-ftone continue to run ; whilft, on 
the oppofite continent, the rocky fhore extends from the line to 
the fouthernmoft Cape, becaufe the whole of the mountains 
there are compofed of durable granite. Geological obfer- 
vations on the gradual decay, or rather mutation of fuper- 
ficial form of this our habitable earth, leaves a doubt on the 
unprejudiced and unfhackled mind, of the idea of the popu- 
lar Jewifh notion, that would limit its creation to the fhort 
period of fix thoufand years. The human mind appears 
loft and bewildered in attempting to form any conception of 
a beginning of the exiftence of matter, or of ought antecedent 
to it. 
On approaching the upper part of the mountains, the weather 
became fuddenly boifterous, and to a perfed; calm and mild 
atmofphere fucceeded, in the courfe of a few hours, a violent 
hurricane that roared through the vaulted rocks, and a cold and 
piercing air. Yet in this elevated fituation, a fmall fpring of 
water had tempted a peafantLto ere£t his cottage, around which 
was juft as much ground as was fufEcient to afford a fupply of 
bread to its polfelTor, Solitary and wretched as the hovel ap- 
peared to be, it was crowded with perfons of both fexes, in the 
height of gaiety. The owner of the place had juft returned 
from the Cape, and had brought with him a fupply of brandy, 
with which they were making merry. The pooreft peafant, on 
his annual vifit to the Cape, never fails to lay in, among other 
articles of purchafe, a cafk of fop'ie^ and this has little reft day 
or 
