1811. 
TABLE MOUNTAIN. 
41 
intercepted from our view by the nearer and more projecting 
masses. 
The DeviVs Mountain^ which appeared quite close to us on our 
left, is a part of Table Mountain, and is separated from it only at the 
top, its elevation being not much inferior. It seemed to accom- 
pany us in our ascent, and slowly to rise as we climbed the steep ; 
but, to our right, the Lions Head^ on the contrary, seemed to sink as 
we mounted above the level of its summit. Looking behind us, we 
watched the hills and distant mountains to the north and east, 
slowly making their appearance one behind another, till the exten- 
sive and grand range of the Hottentot Holland mountains, stood, 
with its distant blue craggy summits, a barrier to the prospect, being 
in some parts, loftier even than Table Mountain. These, with the 
broad, intervening expanse of level country, were the grandest ob- 
jects which we noticed during the ascent. 
On each side of our path was scattered a great variety of shrubs 
and plants, some growing out of the bare rock. None were of a 
much greater height than six or seven feet, and the greater part not 
larger than one year's growth, owing to a fire which happened the 
year before on the mountain, and which unfortunately spread ah the 
way up this ravine. Crassula coccinea had, in many places, escaped 
the devastation, and its fine scarlet flowers, peeping from between 
the rocks and herbage, caught the eye much sooner than other beau- 
tiful flowers of a less brilliant colour. Towards the top, the path be- 
comes very steep, ascending apparently at an angle of 35 or 40 de- 
grees of elevation ; and, in some places, even 45. Still following 
the same ravine, we entered an enormous fissure which divides the 
upper edge of the mountain : this opening is called the Poor/, and, 
on each side, two lofty natural walls of rock, gradually approaching 
each other, contract it, towards the top, to a width just sufficient for a 
pathway. Two of our party, with a couple of the slaves, reached the 
summit by seven o'clock ; but as I had been collecting ever since day- 
light, and my arms began to ache with the accumulated load, I was 
obliged to halt with the rest, at the entrance of the Poort, as well for 
the purpose of taking breath ourselves, as of giving time to the other 
G 
