Rev. S. S. Dornau— Geology of Basiitoland. 117 



the surface of the country, in which there have heen found Palaeolithic 

 flint implements. Some of the floors upon which these flint implements 

 have been found are 60 and 70 feet above the present levels of the 

 rivers. The lake basin referred to above is now quite filled up, and is 

 ovlj represented by a marsh, as the river which formerly drained 

 it has cut a deep channel for itself, removing the surplus waters. 

 It is about six square miles in area, and the beds of sand and gravel 

 filling it up are well exposed in the bed of the stream. They are over 

 30 feet thick. This lake existed from a remote period until quite 

 lately. It ought to be a likely place for fossils, but none have been 

 found. A few fossils have been discovered in other gravels in various 

 parts of the country, belonging, so far as is known, to species still 

 living, but some of which no longer inhabit the country. The skull 

 of a hippopotamus was obtained many years ago from the bank of the 

 Caledon River near the station of Hermon, and I am informed the 

 remainder of the skeleton is still there, as the people objected to its 

 removal. Tusks of the warthog, together with scattered bones of 

 other animals, have also been found. The warthog is quite extinct in 

 Basutoland, and has been for a considerable time. It is probable 

 from the age of some of the oldest of these deposits that recently 

 extinct animals might also be found. 



So far as can be seen it is probable that the drainage of the country, 

 from the time of its elevation at the close of the Stormberg Period, has 

 followed pretty much its present lines. A. glance at the sectional map 

 of the country, from Morija to the Natal border east and west, 

 compiled by the Pev. R. H. Dyke from notes made by him in 1883 

 and 1884, will show this.^ The Caledon River flows in a shallow 

 syncline tending east-north-east, and there is no trace of any change 

 in the direction in recent times. The same may be said of the Orange 

 River and its tributaries, which have cut their way through the 

 plateaux and formed steep-sided valleys nearly 2,000 feet deep, and 

 in some places much deeper than that. On the Maletsunyane River, 

 a tributary of the Orange, there is a magnificent waterfall 632 feet 

 high, formed by the river cutting back its bed. Ages of denudation 

 have hollowed out deep troughs, in the bottom of which the rivers 

 now run with a general southerly direction, carving the volcanic beds 

 into three and in some places four parallel ranges. This has been 

 powerfully assisted by earth-movements subsequent to the cessation of 

 volcanic activity. There have been two distinct thru.sts. Pirst one 

 from east to west, giving the Stormberg Beds their general easterly 

 dip, next one approximately at right angles to this. The first produced 

 the series of synclinal folds, which the country presents on traversing 

 it from the Caledon River to the Drakensberg ; the second gave a gentle 

 rise to the country from south to north, assisting the rivers to deepen 

 their beds. 



A good example of river erosion on a small scale is to be seen near 

 the station of Hermon in the west of the country, where a small 

 tributary of the Caledon has cut its way through a doleritic intrusive 



^ Published in " Papers read at the joint meeting of the British and South African 

 Associations for the Advancement of Science, 1905," vol. ii, p. 129. 



