416 HOT SPRINGS 



the edge of a salt-pan, or occasionally even within it, 

 fresh water can be obtained on digging shallow pits ; a 

 good example is the salt-pan in Herbert. 



In a pan at Klip Fontein's Berg, in Clanwilliam, the 

 depression, from which common salt is gathered for 

 domestic purposes, is surrounded by a thick layer of 

 carbonate and sulphate of lime. The sulphate of lime 

 (gypsum) occurs in small and large crystals embedded 

 in a calcareous, sandy mud, and it forms the larger part 

 of the deposit. The material is well stratified, and the 

 layers are thin. 



HOT SPKINGS AND THEIE EELATION TO THE STRUCTURE 

 OF THE COUNTRY. 



Springs from which water issues at temperatures 

 considerably above that of the air l are rather numerous 

 in Cape Colony. Some of these yield water of much 

 the same composition as ordinary spring water ; the 

 Brand Vlei, Olifant's River (Clanwilliam), and Montague 



1 Detailed information on the contents of the water from some of these 

 springs will be found in Krauss, Neues Jahrb.f. Min., etc., p. 150, 1843 ; 

 Gumprecht, Die Miner alquellen auf dem Festlande von Africa, Berlin, 

 1851 ; Noble, Official Handbook of the Cape and South Africa, Cape 

 Town, 1893 ; Daniell, South African Medical Journal, vol. ii., p. 242, 

 1895 ; Schwarz, G. M., p. 252, 1904. The water of the Montague springs 

 has been found by Dr. Hahn to be strongly radio-active. The tempera- 

 tures of some of the springs are the following : 



Brand Vlei, 145 F. Malmesbury, 88 F. 



Caledon, 120 F. Cradock, 86 F. 



Olifant's Kiver (Oudtshoorn), 114 F. Koega, 79 F. 



Montague, 112 F. Aliwal North, 80 F. 



These figures are taken from the papers cited ; Dr. R. Marloth of Cape 

 Town kindly gave us corroborative information concerning many of 

 them. 



