mit; but I found the diſtant view had deceived me, for I diſcovered a path in it of no very difficult acceſs to perſons uſed to climbing mountains, being the track moſtly frequented in order to arrive at the top, which is hardly to be ſurmounted by any other.
Though the part of the mountain where we now ſtood is about 500 toiſes perpendicular height, the heat of the atmoſphere raiſed the thermometer to twenty degrees in the ſhade.
Fuel is very ſcarce at the Cape of Good Hope; but though the mildneſs of the climate exempts the inhabitants from the neceſſity of employing artificial heat as a defence againſt the ſeverity of the weather, they want it, however, for the purpoſes of cookery, and ſend their ſlaves even far beyond the Table Mountain, to fetch the ſmall ſupply of wood which they require. We met ſeveral blacks carrying to the town their bundles of fuel, which conſiſted of the branches of different ſorts of ſhrubs: amongſt others I diſtinguiſhed cunonia capenſis, and ſeveral beautiful ſpecies of the protea. I was much gratified at having an opportunity to ſee theſe fine plants, and regretted only that they had been gathered for no other purpoſe than to ſerve as fuel. I picked out ſome ſpecimens for myſelf, and the blacks, whoſe burthens were not become much lighter for what I
had
