286 
GEOLOGICAL APPEARANCES 
In pursuing this, I left Cape Town behind me, and having the Lion’s 
Rump on my right, and Table Mountain on my left, I advanced on a 
road which soon became rugged from the action of the innumerable 
streamlets, which, during the rainy season, cut it up in every direction. 
On first leaving the town, my way was over sand-stone, appearing to 
be rather the debris of that which covers the tops of the surrounding 
mountains than any regular formation, being composed of large 
fragments loosely held together by an ochreous cement, or entirely 
free ; or, where a more regular appearance presented itself, the deep 
ravines by which I occasionally passed, brought no strata to view. 
Advancing onwards, I found the way covered with a loose soil 
of various hues, composed partly of sand, containing rounded frag- 
ments of quartz, and partly of a reddish clay, which seemed to be 
the product of decomposed felspar. When about a mile from the 
town, and at about two-thirds of the ascent up the ridge which 
separates Table Mountain from the Lion’s Head, I encountered 
a scene which arrests the steps of every admirer of nature, and 
has irresistible claims to the deliberate examination of the geolo- 
gist. The former delights in the fine contrast afforded by the 
verdant slope of the Lion’s Hill, and the silvery foliage of its 
dazzling Proteas, when compared with the cavernous sides, shelving 
rocks, and gloomy shades of the Table Mountain. The latter 
dwells with curious eye and deep speculation on the evidences 
of stupendous power and endless time every where surrounding 
him ; and equally exhibited by the unfathomable chasms worn in 
the solid rock and by the hill-like masses of the mountains, which, 
separated from their parent seat, threaten to sink with ruinous effect 
from their elevated site. On recovering from the first impression, 
his eye is attracted by the heavy grandeur of the Table Mountain ; 
and having slowly traversed the Vide and sloping surfaces of gra- 
nite which deck its sides, pauses on the horizontal strata which 
compose its summit. Whilst occupied in observing their exact ad- 
justment and even seams, he traces their direction towards his 
right, till he finds them abruptly broken at that part where the great 
