PHYSICAL FEATURES. The surface is an un dulating plateau lying at an elevation of 3000 to 4000 feet above the sea. This plateau is bounded on the cast by the Drakenberg, with a height of 7000 to 11.000 feet, and slopes mainly westward and northwestward toward the Vaal River. It is for the greater part a prairie eoun try,atIording good pasturage in summer.hut very sparsely wooded except in the eastern mountains and along the rivers, which are fringed with wil lows. The colony is watered entirely by the tributaries of the Orange and the Vaal. .The climate. owing to the high altitude and the dry ness of the air, is very healthful and agreeable. The region is, however, subject to hot winds from the interior, so that the temperature rises actual ly higher than in the lower ground of Natal. The mean temperature is about 61°, and the average extremes are: highest 9.5°, in January; lowest 40°, in June. The dominant flora is herbaceous. becoming shrubby toward the west. The large wild animals have entirely disappeared. The country suffers occasionally from the locust plague.
The northeastern portions of the country con sist mainly of Triassie sandstones and shales in terbedded with horizontal coal seams which out crop especially in the Kroonstad and Ileilbron districts in the extreme north. The southwestern portion belongs to the great South African lacus trine basin, the surface rock being of the Karoo series with intrusions of igneous rocks.
MINIxa. The mining industry of the colony is confined principally to the production of dia monds, which are found at Kofl'vfontein and • Jagersfontein, in the Fouresmith district. They are also found to some extent in the neighbor hood of Kroonstad. in the north. During the last decade of the nineteenth century considerable prog ress was made in the exploitation of the diamond fields, the output having increased from 99,225 carats, valued at £224.000, in 1890, to :307.000 carats, valued at £1,508.000, in 1895. The large coal deposits in the north around liroonstad are extensively exploited. Gold is also found.