SOUTHERN AFRICA. 273 
Having now pointed out some of the principal advantages 
which the Cape possesses as a naval station, it is right to men- 
tion the inconveniencies under which it labours in this respect. 
The most serious of these, which, indeed, is the only material 
one that I am acquainted with, is the want of a secure 
and convenient harbour for i^efitting, repairing, or building 
ships. The two principal bays that are resorted to by ship- 
ping, one in the summer, the other in the winter months, are 
entirely open, and exposed to the two prevailing winds, the 
north-west and the south-east ; nor does it appear to be prac- 
ticable, by any expence, to render them secure and sheltered, 
nor to construct any kind of dock or harbour for the reception 
of large ships, and scarcely even of small coasting vessels. 
If any thing of this kind were to be attempted in Table 
Bay, it could only extend to the acconnnodation of small 
craft; and the only place for this purpose would be at Rogge 
Bay, where nature has laid a solid foundation of rock, close 
to which there is a considerable depth of water, where the 
swell of the sea is broken by the jutting points on which are 
erected the Amsterdam and the Chavonne batteries. At all 
events, this would be a much better and more convenient landino 
place than at the present wooden wharf, which is barely 
kept from falling into ruins at an enormous annual expence. 
In all other parts of the bay an attempt to make any kind 
of harbour would be fruitless. The tide barely rises five feet, and 
the constant rolling swell in the winter season would always 
choak the entrance of any dock with sand. Thus the mouth 
of the Salt River is alternately^ open and blocked up with sand. 
VOL. II. N isr 
