442 report — 1879. 



unsettled state of the country, the few villages that remained were at war with 

 each other, and it was almost impossible to induce any one to serve as guide or 

 accompany as servant. On the coast, however, all was comparatively civilised. The 

 inhabitants of the little towns along the Gulf, though given to piracy by sea, are 

 peaceable on shore, and there are no Bedouins to make travelling unsafe. The 

 country indeed is very barren, a uniform plain of saltpetrous clay intersected by 

 tidal creeks and salt morasses. There is but one low range of hills, and these 

 would offer no serious obstacle to a railway. 



Mr. Blunt's party had now been travelling for many days and nights almost 

 without rest, and were nearly exhausted from heat and flies. When at last, on 

 April 28, worn out and almost in rags, they alighted at the English Residency at 

 Bushire, the sepoys at the gate refused them entrance. They could not understand 

 that they were British subjects or honest people of any sort. 



They had travelled five hundred miles, crossed nine considerable rivers, passed 

 through three large towns and about a dozen villages. About fifty miles of the 

 route had been through well-cultivated districts, and fifty more through intermit- 

 tent cultivation ; the rest may be fairly described as an uninhabited waste. 



7. The Physical Aspects of Zululand and Natal. By Beauchamp Tower. 



The water-parting of this part of South Africa is formed by the Drakensberg, a 

 range of mountains which runs parallel with and about 150 miles from the coast of 

 the Indian Ocean. The descent from the Drakensberg to the sea is over an irregular 

 surface of mountain and valley, the mountains gradually diminishing to low undu- 

 lating hills near the sea. But between the 27th and 28th parallels of south 

 latitude a range branches out nearly at right angles with the Drakensberg, which 

 is 7000 to 8000 feet high, and again between 29 and 30 S. there is another 

 range between two branches of which stands the capital of Natal. There is thus 

 an area bounded on three sides by mountain ranges, and on the fourth by the sea ; 

 which includes the northern part of Natal, nearly all Zululand, and the SE. cor- 

 ner of the Transvaal. 



This area is one mass of alternate mountains and valleys ; many of the hills 

 having a peculiar table-topped form. They are of granite capped by huge slabs 

 of sandstone, which seem the remnant of a broadly spread pavement formerly 

 continuous with the central table land. One of the finest specimens of these 

 table mountains is the Inhlazatye, which rises on the north bank of the White 

 Univolosi to a height of about 6000 feet. The principal river is the Tugela, which 

 drains the greater part of the area. The only others of any size are the Univoti, 

 on the Natal side, and the Umlatoosi and Univolosi in Zululand. After describ- 

 ing the rivers, Mr. Tower dwelt upon the beauty of the scenery, and gave some 

 details respecting the climate, the vegetation, and the character and habits of the 

 people. 



SA TURJDA Y, A UG UST 23. 



The Section did not meet. 



