44 TRAVELS IN 
running tbroiigh tlie solid rock. Upon this rests a mass, of 
about a thousand feet in height, of" a whitish-grej shining 
granular quartz, mouldering awaj in many places by exposure 
to the weather, and in others passing into sand-stone. The 
summit of the mountain has entirely undergone the transition 
into sand-stone ; and the skeletons of the rocks, that have 
hitherto resisted the ravages of time, are surrounded by 
myriads of oval-shaped and rounded pebbles of semitrans- 
parent quartz that were once embedded in them. Those 
pebbles having acquired their rounded form by friction when 
the matrix, in which they are still found buried, had not as- 
sumed the form and consistence of stone ; and the situation 
of this stratified matrix on blocks of primaeval granite, clearly 
point out a grand revolution to have taken place on the sur- 
face of the globe we inhabit. No organized remains, how- 
ever, of the Old World, such as shells buried in the rock, 
petrifactions of fishes, or impressions of plants, appear on that 
side of the Table Mountain next the Town ; but I have seen 
some few arborizations in the Schistus on the south side of 
the Mountain. 
To those whom mere curiosity, or the more laudable desire 
of acquiring information, may tempt to make a visit to the 
summit of the Table Mountain, the best and readiest access 
will be found directly up the face next to the town. The 
ascent lies through a deep chasm that divides the curtain from 
the left bastion. The length of this ravine is about three- 
fourths of a mile ; the perpendicular cheeks at the foot more 
than a thousand feet high, and the angle of ascent about fortj'- 
2 
