378 W. M. DAVIS — OBSERVATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA 



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Effects of the dry climate 423 



River valleys and river channels 424 



Storm-flood channels 425 



Undrained hollows or "pans" 426 



Ridges and tables of dolerite 42G 



Relation of rivers and ridges 428 



Peneplains in other parts of South Africa 429 



Districts of stronger relief 430 



Occasional deep valleys 431 



Victoria falls of the Zambesi H 431 



The eastern escarpment 433 



Origin of the Veld 435 



The Veld regarded as a normal peneplain uplifted 436 



The Veld regarded as a plain of arid leveling 439 



The former greater extension of South Africa 440 



Date of origin of the present coastline 443 



Conclusion as to the origin of the Veld 444 



Continental analogies 444 



References 447 



Explanation of plates 450 



Introduction 

 the journey 



During the summer of 1905 I had the good fortune, as one of the 

 foreign guests, to accompan)^ the party of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science on a visit to the colonies of South Africa. The 

 chief dates of the journey were as follows: Having left New York on 

 July 15, I sailed from Southampton on the steamer Saxon with the third 

 detachment of the Association party on July 29, and reached Cape Town 

 on August 15. Meetings were held there for three days. On August 19 

 I set out by rail (see figure 1) with a party of geologists for the interior, 

 spent four days in the Karroo, and then hurried across country via 

 Johannesburg to join another geological party in the Vryheit district of 

 Natal. Eeturning to Johannesburg, meetings were resumed from Au- 

 gust 29 to 31, and then a third geological excursion was made to the 

 Duivels Kantoor, on the escarpment of the highland, east-northeast of 

 Pretoria, September 2 to 4. We again came back to Johannesburg, 

 whence a long southward detour by rail took us to Kimberley, where the 

 main party was overtaken. After a day there, September 6, we started 

 northward in special trains for Bulawayo, where we spent September 

 9 and 10, including an excursion to the granite hills, or Matopos, on the 

 second day; and on September 11 set out for the Victoria falls of the 



