TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 113 



tlieiu with a marlvct, or a sugar-Biill, missionaiy stations soon get to bo suri'ouudul 

 by an orderly and prosperous Kaffir community, grov\-iug up with great promise of 

 steady advance. At one place there is a school for teaching English, to which the 

 Kaffirs voluntarily contribute £70 a year; two of the black men here possess pro- 

 perty amounting to £2000, and many own a few hundreds each. Many other facts 

 were cited by the author, all tending to encom-age hopes of the ultiniate civiliza- 

 tion of the Kaffirs, which he maintained ought to precede attempts to christianize 

 them. 



On the Physical Geography and Climate of Natal. By Dr. E. J. Mann. 



Natal has a sea-coast of 150 miles, and is separated from the drier region of the 

 interior by a range of moimtains, or rather the ledge of the interior tableland, 

 which lies at a distance of from 100 to 140 miles from the coast. The average 

 summit of the ledge is from 5000 to 6000 feet high, isolated pealis rising to between 

 7000 and 9500 feet. The climate is sulitropical, modiiied and softened by the 

 eftects of its peculiar configuration. In area Natal is equal to about one-third of 

 England. From the frontier mountain ledge a subordinate ridge stretches across 

 the middle of the colony, and from this again numerous short spurs branch ofl", 

 between which flow the streams, about fifty in number, which drain through the 

 land to the sea. As the mountains rapidly increase in height towards the frontier 

 ridge, the general gradient of the land, from the sea upwards, is one in seventy ; as 

 a natural consequence the colony possesses no navigable river, and the streams are 

 liable to sudden floods, which impede travelling at certain seasons. Much of tlie 

 excellence of the climate, however, depends on this gradual elevation. In the cen- 

 tral region there is a perennial rainfall, and the valleys of the coasts are fllled with 

 plantations of sugar, coffee, arrowi-oot, oranges, pine-apples, and bananas, whilst 

 the hills are covered with cattle, horses, sheep, and grain-crops. The northern part 

 of the colony lies in the basin of one considerable river. In the southern parts the 

 mouths of the numerous rivers are closed by sandbanks, which are broken through 

 in the seasons of flood, and closed up again at the end of the rainfall. The general 

 surface of the land is composed of an endless succession of hills and valleys, the 

 uplands being bare pasture, the sides clothed witli e-sergreen trees, and the rapid 

 rivers often leap from ledges two or three hundred feet in height. The prevailing- 

 winds are from the Indian Ocean, and are heavily laden with moisture, which is 

 discharged over the land daily in the hot season, the cool moist air rushing in as soon 

 as the air over the land has been heated in the morning by the almost vertical sun. 

 In Maritzburg, 2000 feet high and forty miles from the sea, there are thunderstorms 

 nearly every third day during the six months' hot season. Summer heat in Natal 

 is therefore remarkablj' tempered by the cloud-screen and the frequent showers. 

 Almost every day in summer the sky gets cloudy soon after noon ; and the mean 

 of the month never rises to 72° Fahr. The mean temperature for the six summer 

 months is 09^-5, the night temperature rarely descends to 52^. In the ^\■inter 

 months the sun shines with much less intensity upon the land, and the monsoon 

 air-currents are therefore less violent. Comparatively unbroken sunshine, however, 

 reigns at this season, and the temperature rises to between 70° and 80° in the day, 

 descending on rare occasions in the niglit to below the freezing-point ; the mean 

 winter temperature is 59°-9. In summer the vicissitude of temperature lies between 

 day and day ; in winter between day and night. The mean of the annual rainfall at 

 Maritzburg, for eight years, gives 30'11 inches. The author exhibited a series of 

 tables and diagrams in illustration of the meteorological phenomena of the country 

 as observed by himself dming an eight j'ears' residence. 



On the Alf2:>py Mud Bank. By C. R. Markham, F.B.G.S. 



On the south-western coast of the Indian peninsula there exists a system of back- 

 waters which forms a continuous natural line of communication from Trivenderum 

 to the Madras Railway, with the exception of one barrier of land. At no very 

 distant date the sea appears to have washed the base of the ghauts ; alhr^ial de- 

 posits gradually encroached upon the sea, checked by the waves of the monsoon, 

 and eventually a belt of land was formed, leaving within a line of backwaters, and 



1866. 8 



