dge of rugged grandeur.

[Sidenote: Drakensberg passes.]

Between the Basuto border and Laing's Nek lies the chief strategic
interest of the Drakensberg. Of less elevation than the lofty giants
which lie behind it to the southward, this portion still preserves,
with a mean altitude of 8,000 feet, the peculiar scenic beauty of the
system. From the Basuto border northwards the mountains formed the
frontier between Natal and the Orange Free State. They are pierced by
a number of passes of which none are easy, with the exception of
Laing's Nek, leading into the Transvaal. The best known, starting from
the southern extremity of this frontier section, are Olivier's Hoek,
Bezuidenhout, and Tintwa Passes at the head-stream of the Tugela
river; Van Reenen's, a steep tortuous gap over which the railway from
Ladysmith to Harrismith, and a broad highway, wind upwards through a
strange profusion of sudden peaks and flat-topped heights; De Beers,
Cundycleugh, and Sunday's River Passes giving access by rough bridle
paths from the Free State into Natal, abreast of the Dundee
coalfields; Mueller's and Botha's Passes debouching on Newcastle and
Ingogo; and finally Laing's Nek, the widest and most important of all,
by which a fair road over a rounded saddle crosses the Drakensberg,
the Transvaal frontier lying four miles to the north of its summit.
Some of the eastern spurs thrown off from this section of the
Drakensberg completely traverse, and form formidable barriers across,
Natal. Such are the Biggarsberg, a range of lofty downs running from
Cundycleugh Pass across the apex of Natal to Dundee, and pierced by
the railway from Waschbank to Glencoe. Further to the south, Mount
Tintwa throws south-eastward down to the river Tugela a long,
irregular spur, of which the chief features are the eminences of
Tabanyama and Spion Kop. This spur, indeed, after a brief subsidence
below the last-named Kop, continues to flank the whole of the northern
bank of the Tugela as far as the railway, culminating there in the
heights of Pieters, and the lofty downs of Grobelaars Kloof, both of
which overhang the river. East of the railway another series of
heights prolongs the barrier, and joins hands with the lower slopes of
the Biggarsberg, which descends to the Tugela between Sunday's and
Buffalo rivers. Further south still, broad spurs from Cathkin and
Giants Castle strike out through Estcourt and Highlands, and connect
the Drakensberg with Zululand.