E. H. L. Schwarz — Hot Springs. 



253 



from Montagu to Ladismith ; Warm Water, a spring in the bed of 

 the Ondtshoorn Oliphant's Eiver, just before it enters the gorge 

 through the Samka Hills ; Tover Water in Uniondale Division, 

 south of the Zwartebergen ; and Warm Water in the upper part 

 of the Clanwilliam Oliphant's Kiver. Brand Vlei is the hottest 

 spring, the water being sufficient to scald pigs with — an unscientific 

 way of expressing things, perhaps, but preferable, I think, to giving 

 the readings from the thermometer of commerce; the water from 

 the spring in the valley of the Clanwilliam Oliphant's River ha& 

 to be cooled down before one can get into it; but the rest are just 

 so hot that one can cautiously enter the water as it issues. Most 

 of them contain iron in solution, but Brand Vlei does not deposit 

 anything. In the same position there are very many ordinary 

 springs, and, in fact, the hot springs are each accompanied by a cold 

 spring that issues alongside. In the next two series of beds, th& 



Fig. 1. — The succession of the heds in the folded region of the Cape Colony. 

 T.M.S., Table Mountain Series ; Bv., Bokkeveld Series (Devonian) ; 

 "W., AVitteberg Series ; Ds., shales below the Dwyka Conglomerate, D\v. 

 X indicates the position where most of the hot springs of the colony come 

 out ; it is a well-recognized water-zone. Y is a corresponding water-zone, 

 but no hot springs come out here, though some are highly ferruginous. 



Witteberg and the Dwyka series, the former corresponding in 

 character to the Table Mountain Sandstone, and the latter, as far 

 as the lower shales are concerned, to the Bokkeveld Beds, there is 

 a water-zone at the junction, but owing to the less porous nature 

 of the sandstones the springs are very weak and scarce, though 

 some of them are charged with iron, as at Hartnek's Kloof in the 

 Ceres Karroo ; the Witteberg-Dwyka springs are never warm. 

 Besides the hot and the cold and the ferruginous springs, we have 

 in the Colony what are known as sand-fountains, which are, as it 

 were, quicksands inverted, for if a stone is pressed into the moist 

 sand it is promptly returned to the surface ; should, however, the 

 spring dry up, owing to the drought, the sand-fountains become true 

 quicksands, and cattle going down to drink are quickly entombed. 

 The sand-fountains occur on the junction of the sandstone formations 

 with the overlying shale beds, but the kruid- or stink-fountains, 

 that is to say, those giving off sulphuretted hydrogen, usually occur 

 away from the mountains. Hot springs occur also in the Table 

 Mountain Sandstone in the bed of the Umzimvubu River, near 

 Pont St. John's, and in the Molteno Beds in the bed of the Kenigha 

 River, near the trading station called Kenigha, but these occur 

 irregularly, without any apparent general cause for their appearance. 

 What I wish to call attention to is that there is a great water-zone 



