Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/114

 isolated mass is clothed with verdure, while its flanks are scored with deep ravines shaded by the sombre pine and wide-branching oak. The semicircular range of hills terminates eastwards in a sharp point known as the Devil's Peak, and westwards in the long sloping ridge of the "Lion," with his back turned towards Capetown and his magnificent head facing seawards. Beyond Table Mountain the hills fall gradually southwards down to the famous headland of the Cape of Good Hope.

East of the parallel mountain ranges, which run north and south in the vicinity of the Atlantic seaboard, the folds and wrinkles of the land, resembling the gatherings round the hem of a garment, are disposed in the direction from west to east nearly parallel with the shores of the Southern Ocean. Nevertheless it is evident from the lie of the land that all these border ranges run somewhat obliquely to the coast, for they all terminate in the sharp promontories, which follow in succession to the east of Cape Agulhas, or the "Needles," terminal point of the African mainland. They formerly extended continuously from west to east, but are now broken into fragments of varying size by numerous torrents, which rising in the interior have forced their way seawards at the weaker points of the old formations.

The deep ravines and transverse gorges thus excavated by the running waters between the parallel coast ranges impart to this region an extremely varied aspect, especially in the neighbourhood of the sea, where the slopes are mostly overgrown with a forest vegetation, Of the mountain barriers thus intersected at various