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SOUTH AFRICA 
are evidently capped by horizontal strata of harder material, I believe 
in many instances the igneous rock called dolerite. These kopjes are 
numerous, sometimes forming more or less broken ranges, sometimes 
groups, but often quite isolated. The impression given to the 
geologic eye is that their flat tops must once have been united by 
a continuous sheet of the capping material. The scene at once 
recalled to my mind the flat-topped hills of the Saxon Switzerland, 
but the African scene is on a vastly larger scale. A very moderate 
exercise of the geological imagination serves to explain by the action 
of existing agencies the excavation of a sinuous canon such as those 
of Western North America; or of a “ baranco,” or “ ribeira,” cut 
through the basalts and tuffs of Tenerife or Madeira. Here, however, 
the flat-topped kopjes differ from the examples quoted, by the 
distances which separate them; for miles, often many miles, of veldt 
must be traversed in journeying from one kopje to the next. It 
is, indeed, the difference between “intaglio” and “relievo.” To 
effect the result the work of denudation must have been on such 
a vast scale as to baffle the imagination. The existing rivers are 
few and far between, and all too puny for the task; moreover, the 
present rainfall does not exceed 25 inches in the year. Can ice con¬ 
ceivably have been the transporting agent ? Or are the kopjes the 
ruins of ancient islands ? The plains are now elevated from 2000 
to 4000 ft. above sea-level and the distance from the coast is from 
200 to 300 miles. Lastly, where has the prodigious amount of 
material removed been deposited ? It is certainly a problem of the 
first magnitude. 
Kimberley, Griqualand West, lat. 28° 43' S., alt. 4010 ft. 
September 5th—7th, 1905. 
The Diamond City with its white dust (in striking contrast to 
the red of the Golden City) did not impress us as a good locality; 
moreover, we had but little spare time, and the weather, for the most 
part cloudy, was unfavourable. 
At Kenilworth the Weevil Cleonus mucidus , Gerst., was beaten 
from Senecio , and two dead Heteromera, Psammodes (Moluris) vialis, 
Burch. ( 'pierreti , Sauss.), and P. scabricollis , Gerst., as well as an 
Earwig were taken under stones. Under one stone a large dark, 
short-legged Spider with globular abdomen was found in the midst 
of copious remains of beetles, etc. 
On the veldt in the outskirts of the town, beyond the Old 
Kimberley Mine, the following were found by turning over stones, 
