290 
GEOLOGICAL APPEARANCES 
Beyond it I still found the schistus mingling with the granite in 
a large proportion, but not in the same confused manner. It rose 
up from the sea and passed into the granite in large beds. These 
were occasionally curved, and were most numerous near the sea, 
and became narrower as I receded from it, and at length terminated 
abruptly in the granite. Their appearance is faithfully shown in 
the second number of the Geological Views of the Cape of Good 
Hope. These beds were in some places traversed by veins of large- 
grained, and in others, but less generally, by veins of the red small- 
grained granite. 
In proportion as I advanced along the shore over the granite, the 
schistus diminished in quantity, its beds becoming less wide and less 
frequent, and taking the form of veins. At length it was only to be 
seen in small detached masses buried in fields of granite. Pure 
large-grained granite was afterwards alone visible. 
Similar appearances to these having been seen by Captain Basil 
Hall in Table Mountain, and described by him in the seventh 
volume of the Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions, I took the 
earliest opportunity, in the company of many friends, of ascending 
it, following the path pursued by that gentlemen. 
Besides the examination of the mixture of schistus and granite, I 
had two other objects in view ; the one, to discover, if possible, 
the mass of native iron which has so often been stated to exist on 
the top of the mountain j the other to trace the junction of the 
granite with the sandstone which rests upon it. 
The first part of my road up Table Mountain was very easy, 
being over a cart-way to a mill placed on a stream which flows 
down a ravine in the face of the mountain which is opposite to 
Table Bay. My way to this spot, about a mile and a quarter from the 
town, was over a dark red sandstone deeply impregnated with iron. 
Leaving the mill, I continued my ascent up the ravine by the side 
of a torrent, whose course was interrupted by large fragments of the 
different rocks which compose Table Mountain. The path soon 
became difficult and steep, but the increasing interest of the scene 
