WITNESSED IN NATAL AND THE BORDER COUNTRIES. 427 



height Jof froni 15 to 20 feet above, there are three more, of only a 

 few inches, between which are interposed equally thin strata of 

 sandstone ; and a third of a mile yet further up there is another 

 seam of coal 7 feet thick, and less than 20 feet in perpendicular 

 height above the three. Seven miles west-by-north from Eorke's 

 Drift, there is a seam 3 feet thick ; and a mile south in horizontal 

 distance, and 800 feet above it, is another of the same size ; while 

 a mile and a half north-west occurs a third, about 1000 feet above 

 the first. 



In nearly all the lower strata of these sandstones occur circular 

 holes with perpendicular sides, going through the stratum in which 

 they are found. Generally they are from 8 to 14 inches in diameter ; 

 and in a ford of the Ingoko river they occupy more than half of the 

 horizontal surface ; but this is a special case. On the farm Dundee, 

 there is one 3 feet in diameter which passes through a stratum of 

 from 25 to 30 feet. These holes seem to have been occasioned by 

 deposits of sand around the trunks of trees, which now occasionally 

 occur to the depth of from 2 to 5 feet in one rain. The thick strata 

 of these sandstones, from their homogeneous continuity, seem to 

 have been deposited at one time, whereas in the smaller basal strata 

 something like lamination can be detected, and occasionally wave- 

 prints, neither of which have I seen in strata of 20 feet or more. 

 It also sometimes happens that a very hard stratum rests on one 

 which is so soft that the atmosphere corrodes the face, while the 

 rain finds its way through the fissures of the superincumbent strata, 

 and washes out large caves. 



One spur of the Biggars-Berg terminates about a mile from 

 B-orke's House, which stands in a denuded hollow, with an isolated 

 hill of the same structure as the Biggars-Berg at the back, having 

 all its sides but one greatly abraded. Isandhlwana is about two 

 miles to the east of the last-mentioned hill, and is the final one in 

 that direction which stands forth with perpendicular sides revealing- 

 its structure, while its irregular grass-covered trap cajDping presents 

 the appearance of a couchant lion, as if keeping guard over the stony 

 frontier. About two miles below Isandhlwana, immediately below 

 the place where the few who escaped crossed the Buffalo, half the 

 river-bed is cut out of a solid mass of trap, not columnar, and which 

 has been deposited on its present irregular bed, as shown by a curve 

 of diverse grain and colour on its perpendicular face. This is about 

 1500 feet below the basaltic capping of Isandhlwana. There are 

 several other deposits of trap at this lower level within a mile and 

 a half, those near the mouth of the Isibindi partly basaltic, and 

 in a valley immediately to the west of the Buffalo in horizontal 

 slabs. 



In crossing the Tugela by the Greytown and Biggars-Berg road, 

 we ascend a valley on. the Biggars-Berg side which for a distance of 

 three miles and an aggregate depth of 500 feet has been washed out 

 of brown, blue, and black shales of fine lamination, and exceedingly 

 friable ; and near the termination of the shale the Umsinga Mountain 



