TOPOGRAPHY. In its physical aspect Cape Colony presents a series of elevated plateaus bounded by mountain ranges running parallel to the southern coast, and increasing in toward the north. The first and most south( en mountain chain has an altitude of :3000 to 51100 feet and runs along the southern coast at a dis tance not exceeding 50 miles. Several small rivers intersect it in a direction from north to south and divide it into several sections called S•ellendam. Lange. Ontenigma mountains and a few others. The second mountain chain runs parallel with the first. and has an altitude of 5000 to 7000 feet. It is also divided into several sections, known as the White and the Great Black Mountains, and terminates in the 6000 feet high summit of Cockscomb, northwest of Aigoa Bay. The third mountain range has an altitude of 6000 to S000 feet, and reaches in the summit of Compass, which is the highest of Cape Colony, an altitude of 8500 feet. It is also divided into several parts. the principal of which are the Roggeveld, Nienwveld. Sneeuwbergen, and Storer berg. The plateau inclosed by the second and the third mountain ranges is known by the name of Great Karroo, and has an average width of about GO miles. The western coast of
Cape Colony is also traversed by a mountain chain, the Karree Bergen, an offshoot of the western section of the first mountain range. The eastern coast of the colony is almost without a single indentation, in contrast to the southern and western coasts, which form a considerable number of bays and capes. The most important are Algoa Bay, Mossel Bay, Cape Saint Francis, Cape Agulhas. the most southern point of Africa, False Bay, Cape of Good Hope. Table Bay, and Sal danha Bay. The chief river of Cape Colony is the Orange River, which forms a great part of the northern boundary. The coast lands are inter sected by numerous small rivers and streams, most of them very short and unnavigable. with the exception of the Breede and the Saint John. The inland rivers are very few in number and fall into the Orange River, the Sneeuwbergen marking the division between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. Certain indications, such as the numerous saurians and reptiles as well as the dry basins which occur in the Karroos, swat to point to the fact that this part of the colony was in former times more abundantly watered.