Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/117

 THE KARROOS. 88 {Mints by the coast streams the loftiest is the Groote Zwurtc Bergen ("Great Black Mountains ") which lies farthest inland, and some of whose summits exceed 7,000 feet. Towards its eastern extremity the Cockscomb (Groot Winter-hoek) rises to an altitude of 6,000 feet above the north-west side of Algoa Bay. North of this outer orographic system of parallel chains crowded together along the seaboard, there is developed at a mean distance of over 120 miles from the coast another much loftier range, which also trends in the normal direction from west to east, and whose einuous windings are distinguished by different designa- tions. At its western extremity near the Atlantic Coast Range it takes the name of Koms-berg, which farther on is successively replaced by the Iloggeveld and Nieuweveld, where the term vckl indicates softer outlines and more rounded contours than those of the steeper escarpments denoted by the benj. Still farther east the main range seems almost to merge in the surrounding upland plains ; but it soon rises again to a great height in the Sneeuw-bergen (" Snowy Mountains "), whose loftiest peak, the Compass (9,000 feet), is the culminating point in the Cape region properly so called. Beyond this central nucleus the system bifurcates, the south-eastern branch, which is interrupted by an affluent of the Great Fish River, attaining in the Groot AVinter-berg an altitude of 7,800 feet. This branch terminates at the mouth of the Great Kei River, western limit of Kafirlund, while the second ramification, forming the divide between the Orange and Great Fish River basins, trends first northwards, then towards the east, where it merges in the loft}' range separating Kafirland and Natal from Basutoland. Its eastern extremity, known by the name of the Storm-bergen (" Storm Mountains"), is distinguished in the economic historj' of the Cape for its extensive carboniferous deposits. The thin and some- what schistose coalfields of the Storm-bergen occur chiefly on the northern slopes of the range, and stretch far in the direction of the north; but owing to the cost of extraction and difficulty of transport, the mines are little worked except to supply the wants of the surrounding settlements. Old volcanoes with perfectly distinct craters, which seem to have become extinct since the triassic epoch, are still visible in the Storm-bergen Mountains. The undulating plain dotted over with patches of scrub, which stretches east and west, between the parallel coast ranges and the great northern wuter-parting of the Roggeveld and Nieuweveld, is known by the name of the Great Karroo, a Hottentot word meaning arid land. Farther north in the direction of the Orange River extend other elevated plains interrupted here and there by t-mall mountain masses, which consist for the most part of eruptive rocks, such as trapps and doler- ites, forming natural colonnades often of a monumental aspect. These uplund plains are also karroos, throughout their whole extent presenting everywhere the same geological constitution. They were formerly covered by vast stretches of marshy waters frequented by myriads of vertebrate reptiles, dicynodonts and other varieties, which are unlike any others found on the globe, and which probably Iweame extinct before the close of the triassic period. According to Sir Richard Owen, these huge saurians were herbivorous, and ajpear to have been of amphibious habits.