ature, at a trifling cost. Most of the professors are stated to be men of the first scientific attainments; and many of the pupils have evinced a vigour of understanding and an extent of acquirements which convey indubitable testimony of the value of the institution. This college was founded on the first of October, 1829, having been in existence but a little more than two years when the Potomac arrived at the cape, at which period the number of pupils amounted to one hundred and fifty. The branches taught here, as we understand, are Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Dutch, English, writing, drawing, French, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, the principles of geography, and astronomy. The qualifications of a student for admission are, reading, writing, and a knowledge of the first rules of arithmetic. No. distinction exists as to rank or religion. The building contains a number of spacious and airy apartments, extremely well adapted to the purpose of tuition. The climate of the cape is healthy, judging either from the temperature, or from the ruddy countenances of its inhabitants. From a meteorological journal kept for a number of years at the cape, the mean temperature of the year is 674° Fahrenheit; while the mean of the coldest month is 57°, and that of the hottest 79°. This temperature seems to vary but little in the other districts of the colony; that of Stellenbosch gives the mean of one year 66°, extremes 87° and 50°; while that of Zwartland appears to be 661, extremes 89° and 54°. At Zulbagh, situated in the valley of the great chain of mountains which divide the western from the eastern provinces of the colony, the mean temperature of the year is 663, that of the coldest month 55%, of the hottest 80, extremes 95° and 52°; mean of their winter 56°, of their summer months 79°, least heat in summer 60°. Here, as in the south of Europe, and most warm climates of a temperate zone, the wind commonly blows cold in summer, at the same time that the sun shines with great power; and this is the circumstance which distinguishes a warm from a hot climate. At the foot of the cape mountains, and within the range of their influence, the heat of the atmosphere over the valleys and the plains is mitigated by a cool wind descending from the mountains, and the coldness of the blast is tempered by the reflected heat of the earth's surface. Hence a moderate temperature, where the wind has free progress, is the result in summer at the Cape of Good Hope. During the warm season, although the southeast monsoon predominates, westerly winds are not unfrequent, and they are always moist; when southeasterly winds blow, they bring from the shallow sea, over La Guillas' bank, humidity, which is condensed upon the summits of the mountains; it is seen rolling down the western cliffs in volumes of thick vapour, and the elevation at which this is dissipated, as it descends, answers precisely to the hygrometric state of the air. Few have visited the cape without having cause to admire the peculiarity of the clouds and vapours. The mountain being colder than the plain below, condenses and renders visible the passing vapour, whenever the dryness of the wind is less than the difference of temperature between its summit and base. Owing to radiation, the influence of the mountain's summit extends to a column of air near it, and a cloud at rest is accordingly seen suspended high above, which, from its white fleecy appearance, is called the Table-cloth. The heat of the plain has a like influence on the atmosphere over it, and affects the temperature immediately above. The vapour there, as it quits the mountain, passes into a warmer region, when it is dissolved, and thus it traverses, transparent and invisible, to be again condensed and made apparent on approaching another mountain. This is a simple explanation of the appearances which are so commonly seen during the continuance of the southeast wind at the cape. Volumes of vapour are seen rolling over the summit and down the sides of Hanglip, Hottentots, Holland, and the rest of the chain of high mountains; while above the valleys and over the isthmus scarcely a passing cloud is seen. But the vapour is thickly condensed on the peninsular group of mountains, rolls over their summits, descends to a certain distance down the cliff, and is dissipated and becomes transparent as it passes onwards. Clouds at rest, while the wind is blowing with violence, are frequently to be seen over Table Bay, and likewise over Cape Downs, precisely similar to clouds suspended over peaks. Generally during a southeast wind, the sky is clear on Hanglip and Table Mountains. But, now and then, a small silvery cloud suddenly appears above the sea, on the shore; grows, changes shape without change of place (although the wind, meantime, continues to blow most violently), wastes, and vanishes. Dr. Arnott, in his elements of physics or natural philosophy, thus accounts for the singular beauty and density of the clouds which frequently envelop Table Mountain :-"The reason of the phenomena is, that the air constituting the wind from the southeast having passed over the vast Southern Ocean, comes charged with as much invisible moisture as the temperature can sustain. In rising up the sides 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 has let go part of its moisture: and it no sooner falls over the edge of the mountain, and again descends in the atmosphere, 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." |