370 J. W. BEWS. 



With the marked exception of the Table Mountain Sand- 

 stone the topographical pattern is practically independent of 

 the geological formation, such being due in great degree to 

 the high rainfall, coupled with the ubiquitous growth of 

 vegetation ; rarely, indeed, are bare surfaces of rock exposed 

 on hillsides upon a large scale. The topography is of the 

 youthful type, the valleys tributary to those of the main 

 rivers being steeply graded, crooked and steep-sided with 

 V-shaped cross-sections, while the watersheds are narrow, 

 sinuous and hummocky, often to an extraordinary degree ; 

 as a rule the pattern is more elaborated, but on a smaller 

 scale, the nearer the shore. The actual heads of many of 

 the smaller streams are phenomenally steep-sided, the hollows 

 being lined with bush ; the sapping effect of the percolation 

 has obviously been responsible for the development of the 

 hollow, 'and the vegetation brought about thereby for its 

 maintenance. 



The Table Mountain Sandstone (Devonian) is the most 

 distinctive formation in Natal. Owing to its hardness and 

 horizontal or gentle seaward dip it has produced scarped 

 plateaux, or else terraced surfaces that slope seawards, and 

 are rather scantily forested as a rule. Outlying masses, 

 unconformable upon a granite base, are conspicuous in the 

 area extending between the coastal patches of this formation 

 and the more continuous capping of the 2,000-2,500 foot 

 plateau, for example, in the neighbourhood of Umzinto. In 

 this latter region, however, flat-topped ridges are also found, 

 composed, not of sandstone, but of a pale granite. Under 

 weathering each formation furnishes a more or less distinctive 

 type of soil. 



The granites yield good soils of generally coarse character 

 containing fragments of more or less kaolinised felspar, the 

 latter tending to supply a clayey base. The more gneissose 

 hornblendic varieties give deep red soils of finer texture, for 

 instance, on the south side of the Umzumbi and in the middle 

 reaches of the Umpambinyoni Kiver. On steep slopes bare 

 surfaces of granite frequently project through the scrub, e.g. 



