SOUTHERN AFRICA. 63 
theliigh water mark, feveral fprings have fpontaneoufly burft 
out of the earth, but for want of being properly opened, fo that 
the water may run off freely, they are fuffered to ftagnate, and 
become, as might be expe6led from the foil and climate, a little 
brackifh. All circumftances here are fully as favourable as at 
Madras, where, the pureft and beft water is found clofe to the 
fea fliore. 
Thefe confiderations are fo obvious, that I fhould have 
thought it unneceffary to have dwelt a moment upon the fub- 
j eft, were I not perfuaded that a very general opinion prevailed 
with regard to the difficulty, if not the impoffibility, of fup- 
plying the feveral bays of the colony with frefh water. I fhali 
only fuggeft, as another conclufion that may be drawn from 
what has been faid, that the great depth of the commencement 
of the granite bafe below the furface may, perhaps, better ac- 
count for the moft confiderable rivers of Northern Africa lofmg 
themfelves in the fand, before they reach the fea, than by fup- 
pofmg the interior parts of this continent to be lower than the 
level of the ocean ; a conjecture that has been held, but which 
ftrongly militates againft the general order obferved throughout 
the univerfe. 
I have already exprefled my doubts with regard to the Cape 
peninfula having originally been feparated from the continent of 
Africa, according to the general opinion of writers, who, draw- 
ing their conclufions from a fuppofed retreat of the fea to pre- 
vail univerfally, have not given themfelves the trouble to exa- 
mine any further grounds for fuch a conjecture. The more T 
have 
