stern corner, is bare and monotonous.
The flat and round-topped hills (_kopjes_), which are very numerous on
the various plateaus, scarcely afford relief to the eye, which searches
the sun-scorched landscape, usually in vain, for running water. The
absence of water and of large trees is one of the most abiding
impressions of the traveller. Yet the vast arid plains are covered with
shallow beds of the richest soil, which only require the fertilizing
power of water to render them available for pasture or agriculture.
After the periodical rains, the Karroo and the great plains of
Bushmanland are converted into vast fields of grass and flowering
shrubs, but the summer sun reduces them again to a barren and burnt-up
aspect. The pastoral lands or _velds_ are distinguished according to the
nature of their herbage as "sweet" or "sour." Shallow sheets of water
termed _vleis_, usually brackish, accumulate after heavy rain at many
places in the plateaus; 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 southern coast-land of
the colony is there a soil and moisture supply suited to forest growth.

_Rivers_.--The inner chain of mountains forms the watershed of the
colony. North of this great rampart the country drains to the Orange
(q.v.), which flows from east to west nearly across the continent. For a
considerable distance, both in its upper and lower courses, the river
forms the northern frontier of Cape Colony. In the middle section, where
both banks are in the colony, the Orange receives from the north-east
its greatest tributary, the Vaal (q.v.). The Vaal, within the boundaries
of the colony, is increased by the Harts river from the north-east and
the Riet river from the south-east, whilst just within the colony the
Riet is joined by the Modder. All these tributaries of the Orange flow,
in their lower courses, through the eastern part of Griqualand West, the
only well-watered portion of the colony north of the mountains. From the
north, below the Vaal confluence, the Nosob, Molopo and Kuruman,
intermittent streams which traverse Bechuanaland, send their occasional
surplus waters to the Orange. In general these rivers lose themselves in
some _vlei_ in the desert land. The Molopo and Nosob mark the frontier
between the Bechuanaland Protectorate and the Cape; the Kuruman lies
wholly within the colony. From the south a num