PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 59 



These results of the infiltration of oxide of manganese 

 so strikingly resemble the impressions of ferns as to 

 make one believe, on seeing them for the first time, 

 that veritable fossils had been found. On one after- 

 noon, whilst entomologizing in a river-bed just beneath 

 the field of these operations and unaware that a number 

 of mines were just ready for explosion, we were only 

 observed and warned just in time to enable us to retreat 

 in a shower of small rocky debris, and thus to fulfil the 

 parts of spectators and not victims. 



Some surface auriferous deposits may be found around 

 Pretoria; but these extend to no depth, and gold is 

 practically absent as a mining industry, though thirty- 

 five miles south is found the celebrated Main reef 

 which has created Johannesburg. Pretoria must, in a 

 mining sense, rely on its argentiferous copper and lead, 

 with which is also found antimony. No observer who 

 stands upon or looks at the mass of the Transvaalian 

 quartzose matter can help speculating on its origin. 

 That it was due to the erosion and disintegration of 

 some former vast accumulation of granitic rocks is plain 

 geological interpretation ; but where were these granitic 

 masses situate I * 



There is a charm in life on this high tableland six 

 thousand feet above the sea and which really forms the 

 heart of the Transvaal ; but to all it does not convey the 

 same impression. A recent lady traveller has remarked, 

 " to me it seems quite natural that the centre of a con- 

 tinent is its healthiest point, for one is furthest away 

 from the detestable moisture of our vaunted sea-breezes. 

 Of course we praise sea and sea-breezes here because we 

 cannot get away from them " f . But clever sayings are 

 not always of universal application. It is easy to under- 

 stand the physical basis of thought, and how a particular 

 constitution may be vigorous in the Carpathians and 

 depressed by the sea ; but in the Transvaal the recurrent 

 hills and plains of the tableland only seem to accentuate 



* Mr. C. J. Alford has recently remarked : " Certainly the land-surface 

 from which these materials are derived has long ages ago been obliterated 

 from the surface of the earth." (' Geological Features of the Transvaal,' 

 p. 14). 



t Miss Dowie, British Association, 1890. 



