AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
293 
Looking lip from a point rather below the principal line of junc- 
tion of the large body of the granite with the schistus, to the wall 
of the ravine on my right, I observed large masses of schistus 
imbedded in granite, and permeated by veins of the surrounding rock, 
in the manner displayed by the fourth number of the Geological 
Views at the Cape of Good Hope. These appearances, as well as that 
before mentioned of the perpendicular veins of granite, are better 
seen at some distance from the opposite side of the ravine, as they 
are on too large a scale to be viewed nearly with advantage. 
The veins of granite vary much in the size of their component 
crystals. The large veins frequently resemble in all respects the 
rock which gives them off ; but the smaller veins are generally 
of a smaller grain. In some instances veins commencing with the 
characters of large-grained granite become of a less distinct character, 
having at their termination a very small proportion of mica. Those 
veins which are small-grained, and still more so those that are narrow 
and twisted, are much harder than the surrounding granite. Their 
surface rises above the level of the schistus, and is therefore less 
acted upon by the water which flows over both, whilst the body 
of granite appears to be more decomposable. They are also more 
refractory to the hammer than the principal body of granite. 
Leaving the line where the schistus communicates with the granite, 
I continued my ascent over a great extent of the latter, presenting 
a broad even slope, over which the water flowed in a clear current. 
No schistus was now visible ; nor did the fragments of any other 
rock for several yards rest on the granite. At length the ravine 
became more narrow; large masses of a very crystalline sandstone 
began to appear, and I hoped soon to trace the junction of its prin- 
cipal strata with the granite. But the channel of the torrent still 
contracted, the fragments of sandstone became more frequent, and 
at length so entirely hid the granite, that I could only conjecture 
respecting their point of union. During my progress from this spot 
to the summit of the mountain, I met with little that interested 
me at the time, or that is worth relating. From the termination 
