View from Table Mountain.

1803. curtain from the left bastion. The length of August. this ravine is about three-fourths of a mile;

the perpendicular cheeks at the foot, more than a thousand feet high; and the angle of ascent, about forty-five degrees. The entrance into this deep chasm is grand and awful. The two sides, distant at the lower part about eighty yards asunder, converge within a few feet at the portal, which opens upon the summit, forming two lines of natural perspective. On passing this portal a plain of very considerable extent spreads out, exhibiting a dreary waste, and an insipid tameness, after quitting the bold and romantic scenery of the chasm.

The adventurer may now, perhaps, feel strongly disposed to ask himself, if such be all the gra tification he is to receive after having undergone such fatigue in the ascent.

The mind, however, will soon be relieved at the recollection of the great command given by the elevation: and the eye leaving the immediate scenery, will wander with delight round the whole circumference of the horizon.

On approaching the verge of the mountain

"How fearful

And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low!

The fishermen that walk upon the beach

Appear like mice ;-and yon tall anchoring bark
Diminish'd to her cock.-

-The murmuring surge,

That on th' unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard so high."-

All the objects on the plain below are, in fact, dwindled away, in the eye of the spectator, into littleness and insignificance. The flat-roofed

Phenomenon of the Table Cloth.

houses of Cape Town, disposed into formal 1803. clumps, appear like those paper fabrics which August. children are accustomed to make with cards. The shrubbery on the sandy isthmus looks like dots, and the farms and their enclosures as so many lines, and the more finished parts of a plan drawn on paper. The air on the summit, in the clear weather of winter, and in the shade, is gene. rally about 15 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer lower than in Cape Town. In the summer season the difference is much greater, when that well known appearance of the fleecy cloud, not inaptly termed the Table Cloth, envelopes the summit of the mountain. A single glance at the topography of the Cape, and the adjacent country, will be sufficient to explain this phenomenon, which has so much the appearance of singularity. The mountainous peninsula is connected with a still more mountainous continent, on which the great ranges run parallel, and at no great distance from the sea coast. In the heat of the summer season, when the south-east monsoon blows strong at sea, the water taken up by evaporation is borne in the air to the continental mountains, where, being condensed, it rests on their summits in the form of a thick cloud. cloud and the low dense bank of a fog on the sea, are the precursors of a similar, but lighter fleece, on the Table Mountain, and of a strong gale of wind in Cape Town from the south-east. These effects may be thus accounted for:-The condensed air on the summits of the mountains of the continent, rushes, by its superior gravity, towards the more rarefied atmosphere over the isthmus, and the vapour it contains is

E

This

Climate of the Cape.

1903. there taken up and held invisible, or in transAugust. parent solution. From hence it is carried by the

S. E. wind towards the Table, and its neigh-
bouring mountains; where, by condensation from
increased temperature and concussion, the air is
no longer capable of holding the vapour with
which it was loaded, but is obliged to let it go:
the atmosphere on the summit of the moun-
tain becomes turbid, the cloud is shortly, formed,
and hurried by the wind over the verge of the
precipice in large fleecy volumes, rolls down
the steep sides towards the plain, threatening
momentarily to deluge the town.
No sooner,
however, does. it arrive, in its descent, at the
point of temperature equal to that of the atmos-
phere in which it has floated over the isthmus,
than it is once more taken up and "vanishes
into air-thin air." Every other part of the
hemisphere shows a clear blue sky, undisturbed
by a single vapour.

The spring, reckoned from the beginning of
September to that of December, is the most
agreeable season. The summer, from December
to March, the hottest. The autumn, from
March to June, is variable weather, generally
fine, and the latter part very pleasant. The
winter, from June to September, though in ge
neral pleasant, is frequently very stormy, rainy,:
and cold. The two most powerful winds are the
north-west and south-east. The first generally
commences towards the end of May, and blows
I occasionally till the end of August, and some-.
times through September. The south east pre-
dominates the rest of the year; and when the
cloud shows itself on the mountain, blows in

Storms-Prevailing Winds.

squalls with great violence.

In the midst of 1803.

these storms the heavenly bodies have a strange August. and terrible appearance, as observed by the Abbé de la Caille. The stars look larger aud seem to dance; the moon has an undulating tremor; and the planets have a sort of beard

like comets.

Effects such as these are not confined to the Cape alone; but are, in many parts of the world, the terrific accompaniments of a storm, and are probably occasioned by looking at the objects through a medium that is loaded with vapour, and moving along with great velocity.

The approach of winter is first observed by the south-east winds becoming less frequent, less violent, and blowing clear, or without the fleecy cloud on the summit of Table Mountain. Dews then begin to fall very heavy, and thick fogs hang in the mornings about the hills. The north-west winds feel raw and cold, and increase at length to a storm, with heavy rain, thunder, and lightning, continuing generally for two or three days. When the weather brightens up, the mountains on the continent appear with their tops buried in snow: the Table has also a sprinkling of snow or hail about the summit. At such times the thermometer, about sun-rise, stands, in the town, 40°, and will probably ascend, fowards the middle of the day, to 70°, making a variation in temperature of 30 degrees in the course of five or six hours. The general standard, however, for the three winter months, may be reckoned from 50°, at sun-rise, to 60°, at noon; and in the very middle of summer it varies from 70° to 90°, but generally rests for

1803.

Diseases of the Cape.

days together at 83° or 84°. It has been known August. to exceed 100° in Cape Town; but instances of so high a degree of temperature are very rare. The heat of summer is seldom oppressive. The mornings are sometimes close and sultry; but the nights are always cool. The south-east breeze generally springs up towards the middle of the day, and dies away in the evening. in the evening. When these winds blow with violence, and the cloud appears on the mountain, their greatest strength is, when the sun has passed the meridian about 30 degrees; and they continue in squalls till midnight. Happy is it for the inhabitants of Cape Town, that by these winds a constant circulation of the air is kept up during the summer months, without which the reflected heat from the naked front of the Table Mountain would make the town insupportable. Most of the fatal diseases that prevail among the natives, should appear to proceed rather from their habits of life, than from any real unhealthiness in the climate. The sudden change, indeed, of temperature from hot to cold, may, perhaps, be one cause of those consumptive complaints that are frequent in all classes and ages. But the common disease to which those of the middle age are subject, is the dropsy. A confined and sedentary life; eating to excess, twice, and commonly thrice a day, of animal food swimming in fat, or made up into high seasoned dishes; drinking raw ardent spirits; smoaking tobacco; and, when satiated with indulging the sensual appetite, retiring in the middle of the day to sleep; seldom using any kind of exercise; and never such as might require bodily exertion, are the usual habits in