40 September 1853 Simons Bay the Mainland. The country to the East of the Bay is also Mountainous, so that False Bay is bounded on the East and West by high Mountains, on the North by a flat Sandy beach, with a Sand flat and Marshes, and on the South by the Ocean. Simons Town is a little place of about 400 inhabitants, which is spread along the shores of a slight indentation of the Coast on the West side of False Bay, about six Miles from its Head, which is called by the same name - Simons Bay. The shores of this little bay consist of Dune Sand, with here and a rocky ledge projecting above it at low water, with scattered boulders and fragments lying about and upon them. Its bottom is Sandy, with a depth of about from 6 to 12 f. -deepening as the larger bay is approached, where there is a depth from 20 to 40 f. with a coarse sandy or gravelly bottom, containing 41 September 1853 Simons Bay. a few ledges of rock. On these ledges the greater part of the Bay fishing was carried on, and fish of a dozen or more species, chiefly Percoids, were caught. Simons Town is a British Naval Station, which gives it in great measure its vitality. There were buildings of considerable extent in the Dock Yard, and a large hulk (old frigate) anchored in the Bay. During our stay several English Men-of-War were in the bay - as the Meander, Comus, Nabuchodonazar, Hydra, Sybil, etc. There were also a number of about twenty ten or a dozen other vessels of different nations in the bay at a time. The town has two hotels, and the houses are all of the same general character, flat-roofed, painted white, and having a neat appearance. One of the chief Meteorological characteristics of this place is the continuance and strength of the Southerly Winds. During our stay there was a continual succession of gales from the Southward or South-eastward