DISTRIBUTION OF MOUNTAINS, ETC. 269 



BamT>a, situated on the coast, has large salt pits. Its 

 mountains, rich in metals, extend as far as Angola. The 

 province of Sandi contains ores of iron and of yellow cop- 

 per ore. 



The coast from Cape Negro, in lat. 16° S., to the mouth 

 of the Orange River, an extent upwards of one thousand 

 miles, consists of sand hills, without a tree or drop of 

 water, having in this great space only three bays, which 

 are completely exposed to the north-west wind, viz. the 

 Great Fish Bay, Walvisch Bay, and Angra Pequina. The 

 geology of this coast is entirely unknown. 



Cape of Good Hope District. — This district is bounded 

 on the north and east by the Orange and Fish Rivers ; on 

 the west and south by the ocean. The country extends 

 from S. lat. 26° to S. lat. 33° 55' 40", that of the Cape of 

 Good Hope. It includes the country inhabited by the 

 Hottentot race and the Boshuanas. 



Distribution of the Chains of Mountains, Plains, and Vol' 

 leys or Kloofs. — Two great chains of mountains run paral- 

 lel with the western coast, having between them and the 

 coast a sandy plain from«five to ten miles in breadth. From 

 the most easterly of these two chains branch off three 

 others, running in a direction parallel with the equator, 

 between which are the like number of terraces, including 

 altogether a space of between two and three degrees of 

 latitude. The two southernmost of these chains are united 

 at several points with the western, and form the vast 

 ridges which, under the names Zwartebergen or Black 

 Mountains, run like a steep wall from west to east, broken 

 only at intervals by the streams which flow from them from 

 the Karroo. The two principal of these chains terminate 

 at Kromme Rivers' Bay and at Algoa Bay. Smaller 

 branches run down to Mossel Bay and Plattenbergs Bay. 

 Tlie level country between the southern chain and the coast 

 constantly decreases in breadth, from the spot where this 

 chain branches off from the western mountains till it is lost 

 near Kromme Rivers' Bay. Towards the north several 

 long and spacious valleys run between the chains of the 

 Black Mountains, the principal of which are, the Kokman's 

 Kloof, Kango, the Valley of the Elephant River, and Long 

 Kloof. It is only at a few points, and even at these not without 

 some dandier and dilliculty, that the Black Mountains can 

 Z2 



