SOUTHERN AFRICA, 19 
These considerations are so obvious, that I should have 
thought it unnecessary to have dwelt a moment upon the 
subject, Avere I not persuaded that a very general opinion 
prevails with regard to the difficulty, if not the impossi- 
bility, of supplying the several bays of the colony with fresh 
water. I shall only suggest, as another conclusion that may 
be drawn from what has been said, that the great depth of 
the commencement of the granite base below the surface 
may, perhaps, better account for the most considerable rivers 
of Northern Africa losing themselves in the sand, before they 
reach the sea, than by supposing the interior parts of this 
continent to be lower than the level of the ocean ; a con- 
jecture that has been held, but which strongly militates 
against the general order observed throughout the universe. 
The two principal rivers, on the western coast, are the 
B€?^g or Mountain river, w hich takes its rise in the mountains 
that enclose the Vale of Drakenstein, and falls into Saint 
Helena Bay ; and the OUphant or Elephant's River, which, 
after collecting the streamlets of the first chain of mountains 
in its northerly course along their feet, empties itself into the 
Southern Atlantic in 31° 30' south. Though both these rivers 
have permanent streams of water, sufficiently deep to be 
navigable by small craft, to the distance 'of about twenty 
miles up the country, yet the mouth of the former is choaked 
up wuth a bed of sand, and across the latter is a reef of 
rocks. 
On the south coast of the colony the permanent rivers of 
any magnitude are, the Broad River, the Gauritz River, the 
D 2 
