SOUTHERN AFRICA. 53 
comes in its way. Mufquitoes are lefs troublefome here than 
in moft warm cUmates, nor does their bite caufe much inflam- 
mation ; but a fmall fand fly, fo minute as fcarcely to be vifible, 
is a great torment to thofe who may have occafion to crofs 
among the flirubbery of the fandy ift:hmus. 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 infedls of the Cape ; 
and almofl: all the fnakes of the country are venemous. 
The firfl: appearance of fo fl;upendous a mafs of naked rock 
as the Table Mountain cannot fail to arrefl:, for a time, the 
attention of the mofl: indifferent obferver of nature from all 
inferior objects, and muft particularly interefl: that of the mine- 
ralogifl. As a defcription of this mountain will, with few varia- 
tions, anfwer to that of almofl: 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 almofl: at right angles to meet this line, is fupported, as it 
were, by a number of projeding buttrefl!es 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 
