70 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[December, 
ature, at a trifling cost. Most of the professors are stated to be 
men of the first scientific attainments ; and many of the pupils 
have evinced a vigour of understanding and an extent of acquire- 
ments which convey indubitable testimony of the value of the in- 
stitution. 
. This college was founded on the first of October, 1829, having 
been in existence but a little more than two years when the Poto- 
mac arrived at the cape, at which period the number of pupils 
amounted to one hundred and fifty. The branches taught here, 
as we understand, are Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Dutch, English, 
writing, drawing, French, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, algebra, 
geometry, trigonometry, the principles of geography, ^and as- 
tronomy. The qualifications of a student for admission are, read- 
ing, writing, and a knowledge of the first rules of arithmetic. No 
distinction exists as to rank or religion. The building contains a 
number of spacious<and airy apartments, extremely well adapted 
to the pm'pose of tuition. 
The climate of the cape is healthy, judging either from the 
temperature, or from the ruddy countenances of its inhabitants. 
From a meteorological journal kept for a number of years at the 
cape, the mean temperature of the year is 671° Fahrenheit ; while 
the mean of the coldest month is 57°, and that of the hottest 79°. 
This temperature seems to vary but little in the other districts of 
the colony ; that of Stellenbosch gives the mean of one year 66°, 
extremes 87° and 50° ; while that of Zwartland appears to be 
661°, extremes 89° and 54°. At Zulbagh, situated in the valley of 
the great chain of mountains which divide the western from the 
eastern provinces of the colony, the mean temperature of the year 
is 66|°, that of the coldest month 55i°, of the hottest 80i°, ex- 
tremes 95° and 52° ; mean of their winter 561°, of their summer 
months 79°, least heat in summer 60°. Here, as in the south of 
Europe; and most warm climates of a temperate zone, the wind 
commonly blows cold in summer, at the same time that the sun 
shines with great power ; and this is the circumstance which dis- 
tinguishes a warm from a hot climate. 
At the foot of the cape mountains, and within the range of their 
influence, the heat of the atmosphere over the valleys and the 
plains is mitigated by a cool wind descending from the mountains, 
and the coldness of the blast is tempered by the reflected heat of 
