Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/54

42 ably in height, continue in an irregular series of chains to the lower Orange Eiver. Within the central range, in Bushmanland, the most remarkable elevations are the chains of isolated flat-topped hills which rise directly from the plains of the Fraserburg and Victoria west districts, known as the Karree and Praam Bergen. The Tafel Berg or Table Mountain, the well-known landmark of the coast, and the nucleus of the peninsula of the Cape of Good Hope, rises to 3582 feet. Though the mountains of the colony and the plateaus between them present bold and picturesque outlines of sharply- denned ranges and vast level plains, the landscape, excepting in the coastal districts, is bare and uninviting, and deficient in water and tree-growth.

Nearly two-thirds of the surface of Cape Colony consists of vast arid plains, covered, however, with shallow beds of the richest soil, which only requires the fertilizing power of water to render it available for pasture or agriculture. After the periodical rains, the plateau of the &quot; Karroo &quot; and the great plains of Bushmanland present the appear ance of vast fields of grass, but the summer sun reduces them again to a barren and burnt-up aspect. The pastoral lands or velds,&quot; which extend chiefly around the outer slopes and in the east, are distinguished according to the nature of the grass or sedge which they produce as &quot; sweet &quot; or &quot; soar.&quot; Shallow sheets of water termed &quot; vleis &quot; accumulate at many places in the flat lands of the interior after rains ; and in the dry seasons these spots, where the soil is not excessively saline, are covered with rich grass and afford favourite grazing land for cattle. Only in the extreme southern coastland of the colony is there a soil and moisture supply suited to forest growth, and the first requisite of every settlement in the interior is the formation of a &quot; dam &quot; or reservoir for the collection and saving of a water supply. Out of an area of upwards of 40 millions of acres of occupied lands, according to the census returns of 1865, only 460,000 acres were then under cultivation.

Geological knowledge of the vast territory of the colony is as yet imperfect, though sufficient data have been collected to enable the general features of the structure of the land to be mapped (A. G. Bain, Memoirs on the Geology of the Cape ; Dunn s Geological Map of the Cape ; Gnesbach and Stow in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, &c). The following are some of the more striking general features. The whole basis formation of the western province is considered to be granite, lower but more recent than the clay-slate which rests upon it. A remarkable band of porphyritic rock has been traced along the whole of the country between British Kaffraria and the Bokkeveld Mountains in the west, a distance of more than 600 miles. A series of sandstone rocks form the chains of the Zwarte and Lange Bergen. The &quot; Karroo beds,&quot; the name given to formations which cover that plateau and the country northward to beyond the Orange River, are believed from the abundance of fossil wood and fresh-water shells to be of lacustrine origin, and contain reptile remains of most remarkable character, unknown elsewhere. In the eastern province, one of the most interesting features of the geology is that of the beds of water-worn pebbles, many hundreds of feet above the present sea-level ; indeed there appears to be no doubt that a process of upheaval is still in progress along the whole South African coast, where modern raised beaches, coral reefs, and oyster banks may everywhere be seen. Slight shocks of earthquake hav&amp;lt;i been experienced at various times in the south-western region of the colony. There are records of these in 1739, 1766, 1809, 1811, and 1844. Namaqua Land, north as well as south of the Orange River, is a region composed of the older rocks, gneiss and schists, and is famous for its copper deposits. These appear to have been known as early as 1683, and have attracted attention at various subsequent periods, but it was not till 1863 that any well-directed efforts were made for the extraction of the copper ; at the present time the famous mine of Ookeip in the district of Springbokfontein yields an average of 7000 tons of ore each year. Copper is also known to exist in the Amapondo country of Kafl raria. Silver has also been discovered in Namaqua Land, but has not yet been successfully worked. Coal seams are known both in the Storm Berg in the extreme east and in the central district of Beaufort, but not in easily workable situations. The discovery of diamonds north of the Orange River, an event which gave great impetus to all affairs of the colony, was made in 1867, and in the following years people from all parts of the world flocked to the fields. These lie in the eastern portion of the territory known as Griqua Land West, which, as a consequence of the dis covery, was annexed to the British empire in 1871. The mining has now become a settled industry, with its accom paniment of a fixed population and rapidly-growing towns. The fields extend between the lower Vaal River and its tributary the Modeler; in this region the diamond-producing rock is found in fragments mingled with the detritus ef other rocks, occupying various depressions known as &quot; pans/ or in the deep torrent beds of the rivers. The diggings are thus distinguished as the wet, which lie chiefly along the lower Vaal river, and have been almost abandoned, and the dry mines, about Kimberley, Du Toits pan, and Bulfontein, farther south. One of the largest diamonds at first discovered in this region weighed 83 carats, and realized 11,000; several much larger ones have since been found, one of more than 200 carats. Iron ores, hematite, and magnetite abound also in this region, the deficiency of fuel alone prevents the working of mines of great richness.

We have seen that the great water-parting mountain chain of the colony passes through the centre of the country in a curve parallel to the coast line, from the inner border of Natal to near the western Atlantic coast, forming an outward watershed to the sea of about 100 miles in width, and an inner shed to the Orange River. The streams of the outer shed are constant only in the extreme east of the country ; towards the south-west and on the Atlantic coast land their supply is irregular. Al partake of the character of mountain torrents, having numerous falls, flowing in deeply-cut channels, and being low and feeble (in some cases dry) for the greater part of the year, but swollen and rapid in rainy weather. From east round to west the chief are the Kei, Great Fish, Zondag, Gamtoos, Gauritz, Breede, Berg, and Olifant ; of these only two are navigable for a short distance, the Breede for small vessels for 30 or 40 miles from its mouth, and the Berg for a few miles from St Helena Bay, on the Atlantic coast. The Orange River, or Gariep, to which the inner shed of the colony drains, rises in the Drakenberg on the border of Natal in the extreme north-east of the colony, and flows westward for about 900 miles -to the Atlantic. Its basin includes an area of upwards of 400,000 square miles, but the greater portion of this belongs to the arid deserts of the Kalahari and of Bushman- land. Below its confluence (in about 24 E. long.) with its chief affluent, the Vaal, from the north-east, it has no perma nently flowing tributary, receiving only the occasional sup plies of the torrent channels which are cut deep in the plateaus and filled only after thunder showers, so that its volume decreases very much in its passage westward. Its upper valleys are very rugged and have been little explored ; the region about the confluence of the Vaal is low and alluvial ; but from this to the sea the river is hemmed in by steep and precipitous cliffs, and broken by immense walls 