FALLS OF THE ZAMBESI 433 



this wall end that the river makes its extraordinary turn in front of the 

 hotel and railway station, close by on the southern upland — a view that 

 is often shown in photographs. A connecting channel appears to be at 

 present in formation close to the western end of the present falls. It 

 thus appears that the explanation offered by Molyneux not only accounts 

 for the peculiar pattern of the gorge already formed, but suffices also to 

 show that the peculiar process of its formation is still in progress, and 

 that the future gorge will be, for some time at least, as remarkably zigzag 

 as the present gorge. It is noteworthy that the whole depth of the gorge 

 is cut in resistant sheets of basalt : there is in this case no question of a 

 hard capping layer on a weaker underlying mass, such as commonly de- 

 termines the occurrence of waterfalls in dissected plateaus. 



THE EASTERN ESCARPMENT 



When the eastern border of the highland is reached it is found that 

 the headwaters of many streams which flow rapidly down to the Indian 

 ocean are retrogressively gnawing into the plateau and dissecting its 

 edge. The best example of this kind that came to my notice was on the 

 railway line from Durban to Johannesburg, between Oharlestown (Natal) 

 and Volksrust (Transvaal). Here a headwater stream of Buffalo river, 

 which flows southeastward and joins the Tugela on the way to the Indian 

 ocean, occupies a narrow valley, sharply incised beneath the rolling up- 

 lands, over which rise in turn the more resistant rocks in ridges and mesas ; 

 of these Majuba hill, on the general line of water-parting between the 

 east-flowing and west-flowing streams, is one. The head branches of 

 the Vaal in this district occupy shallow, wide open valleys. It may be 

 noted that the upper Buffalo river receives Berlang river, a stream about 

 30 miles long, from the east, very much as if the latter had once belonged 

 to the Zand-Klip-Vaal-Orange system and had been afterward captured 

 by the Buffalo at the point where its waters turn sharply to the southeast, 

 round an angle of over 120 degrees. 



The headwaters of the east-flowing Elands-Crocodile-Komati river 

 system in northeastern Transvaal are also deeply intrenched beneath the 

 rolling Veld near Belfast, but the valleys are here more widely opened, 

 as if they had longer been in possession of the area than is the case with 

 the westernmost branch of Buffalo river near Volksrust, above mentioned. 

 The highland that rises over the headwaters of Elands river consist of 

 strata of the Pretoria and Karroo systems, dipping gently westward or 

 southwestward ; but the uplands maintain their generally level skyline, 

 which bevels the gently dipping strata in a manner highly suggestive of 

 peneplanation in a cycle of long continued erosion anterior to the present 



