008 Notices of Memoirs—South African Scenery. 
The same type of country extends northward into Rhodesia, and 
westward into Bechuanaland. In the former territory schist and 
slate ridges often form conspicuous escarpment hills, as along the 
Mazoe .Valley, but it is the exception to find the granite rising into: 
elevations which might rightly be styled hills. In the Transvaal, 
however, east of Louis Trichardt in the Letaba Basin, there are some 
conspicuous granite peaks, while the Matopos and the hills of the 
Lomagundi district, in Rhodesia, are other imstances. All these, 
however, differ from such mountains as the Central Alps, in being due 
to the denudation of the surrounding country, and they can in no 
sense be regarded as true mountains of elevation. 
The whole of the central plateau is a poorly watered country. The 
Karroo, in Cape Colony, has not a single perennial stream, and the 
rivers of the Orange River Colony are little better. Even the Vaal 
and Orange Rivers are, for the greater part of each year, only a series 
of standing pools over a large part of their upper, and often over their 
lower, courses. The best-watered regions are where the dolomitic 
limestone of the Potchefstroom System prevails, either in the southern 
or in the eastern Transvaal. 
Few of the other rivers present much of the nature of river scenery 
as known in Kuropean countries. Those of the Karroo haye broad 
shallow courses, covered with the boulders brought down in the rare 
times of flood. In the Orange River Colony many of the rivers have 
cut deep channels through the soil and soft surface deposits, but rocky 
gorges are not common, though good instances may be seen on the 
Caledon River on the Basutoland border. 
The edge of the central plateau in eastern South Africa makes 
a marked physical feature, especially where it forms the great 
escarpment of the Drakensberg. But everywhere there is a more or 
less sudden drop from the High Veld down to the low country of the 
eastern coastal belt, whether over the basal granite, as in the Letaba 
‘Valley and at Waterval Boven, on the Delagoa Railway, or over 
the uppermost beds of the Karroo System, as in Natal and the 
Transkei. 
The passage of the rivers from the central plateau to the coast zone 
presents considerable variation. In Cape Colony they have cut deep 
gorges through the Zwartebergen, Langebergen, and intervening 
ranges, but in Natal and the eastern Transvaal lofty waterfalls over 
the edge of the plateau are the common feature. 
South Africa is absolutely devoid of lakes—such bodies of water as 
are often designated lakes being lagoons along the coastal belt, as in 
the George and Knysna districts, Cape Colony, and in the case of Lake 
St. Lucia, Zululand; or, like Lake Chrissie, in the eastern Transvaal, 
they are shallow depressions filled by rain-water in the wet years—in 
fact, simply enlarged pans. 
Many interesting observations are readily possible as to the 
modifications now taking place of the scenery whose geological basis 
I have thus briefly sketched. Over a large tract of country rock- 
masses break up by alternate expansion and contraction due to the 
wide daily variation of temperature from noon to midnight throughout 
a large part of the year, and whether we look at the crumbling shales. 
