breaking over it. We saw, in the course of the day, cape Hanglip, and the cape of Good Hope also, which bound the entrance into False bay. Heavy gales of wind, between west and northwest, continued until the fourth of December, when we made Table mount, and stood into the bay in a violent southeast gale. We then saw, for the first time, the phenomenon of the cloud-capped mount, which is always seen when the wind is from that quarter. One looks with astonishment, at what seems always to be the same cloud, sideling along from east to west, apparently remaining stationary, without being instantly dispersed by the furious tempest; but Doctor Arnott thus accounts for the singular beauty and density of the clouds, which frequently envelop the mount, and the cause of its creation and final dispersion: “The reason of the phenomenon is, that the air, constituting the wind from the northeast, having passed over the vast southern ocean, comes charged with as much invisible moisture as the temperature can sustain. In rising up the side of the mountain, it is rising in the atmosphere, and is therefore gradually escaping from a part of the former pressure; and on attaining the summit, it has dilated so much, and has consequently become so much colder, that it lets go part of its moisture: and it no sooner falls over the edge of the mountain and again descends in the atmosphere to where it is pressed, and condensed and heated as before, than it is re-dissolved and disappears: the magnificent apparition dwelling only on the mountain-top.” [Sidenote: ARRIVAL AT TABLE BAY.]