[Footnote 89: "It is strange that neither Kolben nor de la Caille should have thought the Tower of Babylon worthy of a particular description. The former [vol. ii. p. 52, 53, English translation] only mentions it as a high mountain. The latter contents himself with telling us, that it is a very low hillock, _un tres bas monticule. Voyage de la Caille_, p. 341. We are much obliged to Mr Anderson for his very accurate account of this remarkable rock, which agrees with Mr Sonnerat's, who was at the Cape of Good Hope so late as 1781. His words are, "La Montagne de la _Perle_, merite d'être observée. C'est un des plus hautes des environs du Cap. Elle n'est composée que d'un seul bloc de granit crevassé dans plusieurs endroits." _Voyage aux Indes_, tom. ii. p. 91.
Mr Sonnerat tells us, that Mr Gordon, commander of the troops at the Cape, had lately made three journies up the country, from which, when he publishes his journal, we may expect much curious information.--D.]
"In the morning of the 20th we set out from the Pearl; and going a different road from that by which we came, passed through a country wholly uncultivated, till we got to the Tiger hills, when some tolerable corn-fields appeared. At noon we stopped in a hollow for refreshment, but, in walking about here, were plagued with a vast number of musquitoes or sand-flies, which were the first I saw in the country. In the afternoon we set out again, and in the evening arrived at the Cape Town, tired with the jolting waggon."
On the 23d we got on board the observatory, clock, &c. By a mean of the several results of the equal altitudes of the sun, taken with the astronomical quadrant, the astronomical clock was found to lose on sidereal time, 1' 8",368 each day. The pendulum was kept at the same length as at Greenwich, where the daily loss of the clock on sidereal time was 4".
The watch, by the mean of the results of fifteen days observations, was found to be losing 2",261, on mean time, each day, which is 1",052 more than at Greenwich; and on the 21st, at noon, she was too slow for mean time by 1'h 20' 57",66. From this 6' 48",956 is to be subtracted, for what she was too slow on the 11th of June at Greenwich, and her daily rate since; and the remainder, viz. 1° 14' 8",704, or 18° 32' 10", will be the longitude of the Cape Town by the watch. Its true longitude, as found by Messrs Masson and Dixon, is 18° 23' 15". As our observations were made about half a mile to the E. of theirs, the error of the watch in longitude is no more than 8' 25". Hence we have reason to conclude, that she had gone well all the way from England, and that the longitude, thus given, may be nearer the truth than any other.