accommodation which it affords to shipping. Indeed, Saldanha bay would in this view have been a much more eligible settlement; but the present station seems to have been preferred on account of the supply of excellent water, in which the other was deficient. Table bay and False bay, on the opposite sides of the peninsula, are alternately frequented, according to the season of the year; the former from September to May, while the SE winds are prevalent; the latter during the remainder of the year, when the wind blows generally from the N and NW. The station used in False bay is a small indentation called Simon's bay. None of these roads, however, afford any place where vessels can be heaved up and repaired; nor could they admit easily of such an accommodation. There is a station on the W side of the peninsula, called Hout's or Wood's bay, which enjoys perfect security from all winds; but the entrance as well as egress is difficult, and it is so small as not to contain above 10 vessels.-The sailing distance of Cape T. from Southampton is 6,500 m.; from Adelaide, 5,650 m.-An observatory has been established by government, on a flat sandy heath about 3 m. N of Cape T., at an expense of £30,000. CAPE VERDE, the extreme W point of the African continent, on the Senegambian coast, in N lat. 14° 43' 5", W long. 17° 33′ 7′′. It is the extremity of a peninsular projection between the bay of Yof on the N, and the bay of Dakker or Goree on the S. It terminates in a tongue of low flat black rocks, which, in a few parts, rise 8 or 10 ft. above sea level. | lands in particular. The number of these increase in ascending from the low grounds to the hills of second magnitude, where they are succeeded partly by European and partly by other Canarian plants to the height of 3,000 ft. [Smith.] Extreme droughts are, however, sometimes fearfully felt in these islands; rain has sometimes not fallen for 3 or 4 years. In 1832, the drought was so severe as to dry up every green thing of the earth's produce from the blade of grass to the foliage of the loftiest trees; and it is said no fewer than 30,500 individuals perished from this cause and the consequent famine. The soil consists chiefly of volcanic, and to a small extent of calcareous matter. Cultivation is chiefly confined to the glens or ravines which are watered by rills from the mountains. Indian corn, cassava, sugar-cane, vines, figs, lemons, pine-apples, the tamarind, guava, banana, cocoa-palm, cotton, and indigo, grow freely. Wheat, it is said, succeeds when sown in the dry plains in the rainy season, as does rice in the lowest and wettest grounds; but these islands are chiefly supplied with corn from America, in exchange for salt and mules. The principal trees are the palm, the tamarind, and the Adansonia.-The domestic animals are mules, asses, goats, hogs, and poultry. Monkeys, baboons, and bisam-cats, abound in the mountain-woods; and the coasts swarm with land-tortoises. The principal fish caught in the surrounding sea are grey and red mullet, rock-fish, snappers, bonitos, and cavalla. In 1844 bullocks weighing about 350 lbs. might be had at Port Praya for 12 dollars a-head; fowls, 4 dol. per dozen; turkeys, 1 dol. each; sheep, 4 dol. each; oranges, dol. per hundred. In 1842, 78 vessels= 7,446 tons, arrived at these islands, with cargoes valued at £42,461. Of these vessels 28 = 2,401 tons, were British, and the value of their cargoes was £7,275. The following table of the area of the principal islands of this group, and their pop. and revenue in 1834, is given by Mr. Macgregor in his Commercial Tariffs. Santiago, Santo Antao, Boavista, or Bonavista, Brava, CAPE VERDE ISLANDS, the ILHAS VERDES of the Portuguese, a semicircular group about 350 m. distant from the mouth of the Gambia on the W coast of Africa, lying between 14° 17′ and 17° 19' N lat., and 22° 10' and 25° 10' W long. The group consists of 14 islands, 9 of which are inhabited. Their united superficies is estimated at 1,700 sq. m. Their general aspect is mountainous; and they are all of volcanic origin and basaltic formation. One of them, called Fogo-alt. 7,000 ft.-is in fact one vast crater, from which smoke always and flames sometimes issue. [Walsh.] The coasts are, in many quarters, rugged and sterile; while the interior presents lofty shapeless mountains and long serrated rocky outlines. Some of the islands have a flat and sandy coast; while others are rugged and precipitous. Climate and productions.] Though situated nearly Maio, or Mayo, in the middle of the N equinoctial zone, and at no great distance from the broadest part of Africa, in their climate and vegetation these islands approach nearer to the temperate regions than to the tropical. In the opposite countries of Senegambia, the rains and the hottest seasons arrive together, and continue during the months of May, June, and July. In the C. Verde islands, on the contrary, the rains do not set in until the middle of August-when they are about to cease in Senegambia-and continue with intermissions until January or February. Even in the dry season, the atmosphere of the Č. Verde islands is extremely humid; for the air being heated over the broadest part of Africa, a great capacity for imbibing moisture is thereby acquired, and, in passing over the sea, it is saturated to the highest point, so that the least diminution of temp. causes it to deposit abundant vapour. Not only the highest points of the islands, but also the central ridges of hills down to 1,400 ft., are usually enveloped in clouds from 10 o'clock A. M. This humidity clothes the hills with thick pasture grass, giving to the country a feature entirely unlooked for in so low a latitude and of so small an elevation above the sea. Few of the plants of the hotter regions of Africa are found here; but a much greater number of species similar, or allied to, those of the temperate extremities of the continent, and of the Canary is 1,155 We find the pop. of these islands, as ascertained by census at the close of 1831, stated to be 88,460 [Bullet. de la Soc. de Geog., vol. xix.]; and can hardly suppose it to have been reduced to 48,854 even after the dreadful mortality of 1832. Population.] A large proportion of the pop. are Negroes apparently of the Yoloff race, who have adopted the Portuguese religion and language, or rather a patois, and Mulattoes, whose general appearance indicates intemperate and indolent habits. These people, however, in point of height, are a fine race, both men and women; the greater number even of the latter being 5 feet 8 or 9 inches, and many even exceeding this, while the men are tall in proportion. A few, and but a few, appear clad with decency. The women wear no stays; nor any thing that can in any way repress the natural shape of the figure. Their usual dress consists of a white chemise, fastened across the bosom by a running string. On the upper part of the person they have nothing over this; but from the waist downwards, they have folded round them a long scarf of a diamond pattern; and sometimes, when they wish to appear very fine, they also wear one of these scarfs over the left shoulder, |