1801.
November.
Tuesday 3.
into it; owing, in part, to the distance at which ships there ride from the land, and apparently, also, from the under-tow passing out on the eastern side of the bay, clear of the anchoring ground.
The Cape of Good Hope cannot now be supposed to furnish much of novelty in the department of natural history, especially to transient visitors; but it still continues to afford much amusement and instruction to English botanists. It did so to our gentlemen, who were almost constantly on shore upon the search; and their collections, intended for examination on the next passage, were tolerably ample. They were sufficiently orthodox to walk many miles for the purpose of botanising upon the celebrated Table Mountain; for what disciple of Linnæus could otherwise conscientiously quit the Cape of Good Hope? In taking so early a departure, though it were to proceed to the almost untrodden, and not less ample field of botany, New Holland, I had to engage with the counter wishes of my scientific associates; so much were they delighted to find the richest treasures of the English green house, profusely scattered over the sides and summits of these barren hills.
