SOUTHERN AFRICA. 255 
In all other parts of the bay an attempt to make any kind of 
harbour would be fruitlefs. The tide barely rifes five feet, and 
the conftant rolling fwell in the winter feafon would always choak 
the entrance of any dock with fand. Thus the mouth of the 
Salt River is alternately open and blocked up with fand. 
The annexed chart of Table Bay was con{lru£ted by order of 
Governor Van de Graaf in the year 1786, and has been found, 
by a diligent examination, to be extremely accurate. The an- 
choring-ground in general is tolerably good, but the fhifting of 
the fand leaves bare fometimes whole ridges of the fame kind 
of hard blue fchiftus that appears every where on the weft fliorc 
of the bay. Thefe ridges are fo fliarp, that a cable coming 
acrofs them is fare to be cut in pieces. This has happened fa 
frequently that the bay is full of anchors, which have never 
been fiflied up ; and thefe contribute equally with the rocks, to 
cut and chafe the cables of other fhips. If fome pains be not 
taken to remove the anchors, the number of which increafe 
every year, there will not, in time, be a clear anchorage for a 
fmgle large fhip. When the Dutch Admiral Dekker's fquadrou 
was blown out of Table Bay in February laft they left 'fix or 
eight anchors behind. 
Admiral Pringle, I underftand, was of opinion that the in- 
convenience arifing from the rocks and the loft anchors was in 
fome degree remediable, by finking mooring-chains for the large 
Ihips, inftead of their lying at anchor. In the fouth-eaft winds, 
which blow from September to the end of April, and which is 
the feafoQ when all Ihips bound for the Cape refort to Table Bay, 
therQ 
