SOUTHERN AFRICA. 229 
height of the former, and consequently commands it. These 
gentlemen, who are supposed to be among the best informed 
of the Company's officers, may be very good artillery officers, 
but they are certainly bad judges of distance in a moun- 
tainous country ; for, as Sir James Craig has observed, the 
nearest point of the Devil's Uill is at the distance of 3700 
yards ; but that, in order to get any thing like a level with 
the part of the Lion's Rump, on which the most considerable 
part of the works would be placed, it would be necessary to 
go farther back on the slope of the Devil's Hill, at least five 
hundred yards, and even then the elevation on the latter 
would not be equal to that point on which the said works 
were intended to be situated ; so that the point blank range 
of the Company's artillery officers is, at least, 4200 yards. 
Sir James observes, that a residence of fourteen months at 
the Cape, since he gave his opinion on this subject, and a 
continued and unremitting study to render the place as de- 
fensible as possible, had only served to confirm him in it ; an 
opinion, indeed, which perfectly coincided with that of Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Bridges, as well as with that of every intelli- 
gent officer who has been on duty at the Cape, not only 
among the English, but also among the French, Dutch, and 
German officers now serving there. 
Near the narrowest part of the peninsula, on the western 
shore, are two contiguous bays called Hout or Wood Bay, 
and Chapman's Bay; the latter communicating, by a defile 
of the mountains about 5400 yards in length, with Vis or 
Fish Bay close to Simon's Bay ; and the former, by another 
defile, with the great road leading from Cape Town to Si- 
