54 PBOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [DeC. 7, 



it soon rises again to the high plateaux of the Town Hill and Zwartkop 

 (about 5000 feet high). In a very few steps it forms the long and 

 mighty range of the Draakensberge, which form the great watershed 

 line between the rivers of the Atlantic and the Indian oceans. "We 

 find in this range the Mont aux Sources (12000 feet above the level 

 of the sea), a knot of mountains, which sends spurs in five directions, 

 forming the Witteberge and the Quathlamba Mountains. All these 

 great steps and plateaux run parallel to the coast, and consist of 

 more or less broad belts of country. The small belt on the sea- 

 shore shows tropical vegetation. The sugar-cane, the coffee, and 

 now recently the tea shrub, and the greatest variety of tropical fruits 

 find here suitable climate and ought to be sources of immense riches . 

 to the country if properly managed. When we ascend the first terrace, 

 the change in the landscape is at once remarkable, and the vegetation 

 has quite a different character. The sugar-cane and exotic creepers 

 disappear, and their place is taken by more European plants ; but 

 the coffee-shrub and many a fruit-tree strange to the eye of the 

 newly arrived European still remain. At a still higher point these 

 remains of subtropical vegetation also disappear, and nothing is 

 visible to the eye but vast plains of " veldt,'^ stretching for miles, 

 covered with coarse-looking grass, and only interrupted by ant-hills 

 and deep holes made by the ant-bear (the worst foe of those most 

 industrious insects). Nothing more cheerful meets the eye in these 

 vast tracts than small hills and grass — grass everywhere — only 

 occasionally a lonely cattle-farm with the surrounding never missing 

 gum-trees, which give the place a still more lonely and cheerless 

 appearance. This belt is about thirty mUes broad, and runs through 

 Kaffirland, Natal and the Zulu country. The succeeding, third district 

 is the most salubrious one, whose climate agrees best with the con- 

 stitution of Europeans. The soU is covered with a luxuriant grass 

 vegetation, which supports a strong and fine race of cattle. The 

 higher the ground ascends, the more fruitful it becomes ; and on the 

 elevated plains, in the district where the yellowwood-tree flourishes, 

 wheat and almost all our European fruits will grow magnificently. 

 Here the winter, although not so severe as in northern Europe, is 

 more like the climate we are accustomed to, and is therefore a real 

 paradise to emigrants, who not only find a country where their 

 labours receive their best reward, but also a more genial climate 

 than the coast-district affords. Natal's rivers flow to the Indian 

 ocean and supply the colony with abundance of water, which makes 

 its soil superior to that of the " old colony," with its vast plains, 

 " karoos," and dreary " veldts," 



II. Geoxogy. 



The geological structure of the country is shown by the map and 

 section on Plate II., in the preparation of which the author has sup- 

 plemented the results of his own researches by those of Dr. Suther- 

 land and M. Franz Groger. 



1. Granite and Gneiss. — Granite in South Africa does not form 

 the centre of the country or the most prominent of the elevations. 



