Journal of a cruise in the US ship, Vincennes, to the North Pacific Ocean, China Sea, Behring Strait, etc. by William Stimpson, 1853-1855
Page 66
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Transcription
September 1853 Simon's Bay. 39 General Notice of the Cape of Good Hope and of our stay here from Sept. 12 to Nov. 7. 1853 False Bay is nearly of a square form, the length of one of its sides being a- bout 20 miles, and its western side running nearly N. and S. It is let into the South Western extremity of Africa, so as to leave between it and the Atlantic a long narrow peninsula of a mountainous char- acter, which is separated from the mainland, in a topographical sense, by the land flat which extends from Table Bay & the head of False Bay, and which has probably been once submerged. This penin- sula contains many high mountains whose tops are generally shrouded in clouds, such as Table mountain and the Devil's peak, near Cape Town, - the Mussenberg near Constantia, and the Simon's berg near Simon's Town. Its South- ern extremity, which forms the Cape, is as to much elevated as its more central and Northerly portions, nearer