100 
BABYLONSCHE TOREN 
11 ArHix, 
speaking or writing in English ; while the converse of this, in writ- 
ing in Dutch, would prevent mistake or confusion with those who are 
acquainted only with that language. Precisely this has already taken 
place with some names in daily use, such as Kaapstcd, Tafelberg, 
Leewwenkop, Zoute rivier, Zondags rivier, Grootevisch rivier, for which 
the English inhabitants have substituted, both in speaking and in 
writing, Cape Town, Table-mountain, Lions-head, Salt-river, Sunday- 
river, and Great Fish-river. But the aboriginal Hottentot names 
ought, on no account, to be altered ; they should, on the contrary, 
rather be sought for, and adopted, as being far more appropriate 
to Southern Africa, than a multitude of foolish names of modern 
imposition. 
11 I spent the forenoon in drawing some views, as memorials 
of a spot which I might never visit again. The landscape is moun- 
tainous and open, and, though it no where presents the desirable 
feature of wood, it is. not deficient in beauty, in the grand, flowing 
outline of a range of mountains on the opposite side of the valley, 
and in which the mountain called Bahylonsche Toren (Tower of Babel) 
stands conspicuous.* This mountain is, perhaps, the most remark- 
able of any in the colony, on account of the immense distance at 
which it is visible. About three years and a half afterwards, I saw it 
from the spot marked in my map by the words Mountain Station, 
which is distant 120 miles in a straight line; and a peak, which I 
distinguished when near a place called Helle, near Gaurits river, 
could hardly be any other than this same mountain, though the dis- 
tance is not less than 157 miles in a right line. This would seem 
incredible, if allowance were not made for an extraordinarily re- 
* The annexed engi-aving is a representation of this mountain, as viewed from the 
baths. 
