first plateau (Little
Karroo), (4) second range of hills, (5) second plateau (the Great
Karroo), (6) main chain of mountains guarding, (7) the vast interior
tableland--is characteristic of the greater part of the colony but is
not clearly marked in the south-east and north-west borders. The
innermost, and most lofty, chain of mountains follows a curve almost
identical with that of the coast at a general distance of 120 m. from
the ocean. It is known in different places under different names, and
the same name being also often given to one or more of the coast ranges
the nomenclature of the mountains is confusing (see the map). The most
elevated portion of the innermost range, the Drakensberg (q.v.) follows
the curve of the coast from south to north-east. Only the southern
slopes of the range are in Cape Colony, the highest peaks--over 10,000
ft.--being in Basutoland and Natal. Going westward from the Drakensberg
the rampart is known successively as the Stormberg, Zuurberg,
Sneeuwberg and Nieuwveld mountains. These four ranges face directly
south. In the Sneeuwberg range is Compass Berg, 8500 ft. above the sea,
the highest point in the colony. In the Nieuwveld are heights of over
6000 ft. The Komsberg range, which joins the Nieuwveld on the east,
sweeps from the south to the north-west and is followed by the Roggeveld
mountains, which face the western seaboard. North of the Roggeveld the
interior plateau approaches closer to the sea than in southern Cape
Colony. The slope of the plateau being also westward, the mountain
rampart is less elevated, and north of 32 deg. S. few points attain 5000
ft. The coast ranges are here, in Namaqualand and the district of Van
Rhyns Dorp, but the outer edges of the inner range. They attain their
highest point in the Kamies Berg, 5511 ft. above the sea. Northward the
Orange river, marking the frontier of the colony, cuts its way through
the hills to the Atlantic.

From the Olifants river on the west to the Kei river on the east the
series of parallel ranges, which are the walls of the terraces between
the inner tableland and the sea, are clearly traceable. Their general
direction is always that of the coast, and they are cut across by rugged
gorges or _kloofs_, through which the mountain streams make their way
towards the sea. The two chief chains, to distinguish them from the
inner chain already described, may be called the coast and central
chains. Each has many local names. West to eas