The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

92 SOUTH AND KAST AFRICA.The Kei, that is, the "Great," pleonastieally calh'd tlie "Great Ivci," which(lesceiuls from the Sturm-bergon and the Kwathhunha highhinds, has acquiredconsiderable political importance first as the old limit of the Hottentot domain, andafterwards as for a long time marking the boundary of the British possessions inthis direction. Beyond it begins the territory of the Transkei Kafirs (Galccas andothers), who were formerly independent of the colonial government. The Kei isa very rapid stream, rushing over magnificent waterfalls and winding throughmany romantic gorges. But of all the rivers watering the Kafir domain the mostpicturesque is the St. John, that is, the Um-Zimvulu of the natives. At its mouthit is a broad stream 2,000 feet wide from bank to bank ; but the channel graduallynarrows and becomes hemmed in between steep wooded escarpments dominated bythe vertical cliffs of a terrace, which is itself surmounted by other rockj' wallsterminating in a flat tabular surface.This section of the stream, where both banksrival each other in si/e and romantic beauty, has received from the English settlersthe name of the " Gate " of the St. John. Notwithstanding its great width theentrance is rendered inaccessible to large vessels by a bar, which, however, is easilycrossed with the flood tide by smaller craft.For these the river is navigable fromits mouth for about twelve miles to the point where the first rapids obstruct allfurther approach.The Rivers of Natal and Zii.rr.AXD.The colonj- of Natal is intersected by several parallel channels, each flooded bya copious stream with its wild gorges, falls, and rapids. The Um-Zimkidu, IJm-Komanzi, Um-Lazi, Um-Geni, and other Urns, or " watercourses," follow successivelyas far as the great Tugela river, whose main branch rises, like the Vaaland the Caledon, on the Potong uplands, and which flows thence to the IndianOcean between Natal and the Zulu territory.Beyond this point the relief of theseaboard and with it the salient features of the running waters become modified.Their banks are no longer rocky, the hills recede more inland, leaving betweenthem and the sea a broad level zone, over which the rivers wind mainly in anortherly or north-easterly course. For a space of about 180 miles in a bee linethe coast maintains the character of a sandy beach covered with dunes and enclosingextensive lagoons and backwaters. The largest of these lagoons, which wereformerl}' marine inlets, biit which are now separated from the sea by narrow stripsof sand, is the so-called Lake St. Lucia, a sheet of shallow water nearly 60 mileslong with a mean breadth of 12 miles. It occupies the southern jwrt of thelow-lying coastlands, which terminate northwards in a nimiber of channels andsmaller lagoons communicating with the spacious inlet of Lourenco Marques orDelagoa Bay. This section of the seaboard is clearly limited southwards by thenarrow passages giving access to Lake St. Lucia, northwards by the arm of the seawhich penetrates into Delagoa Bay.At its issue the southern basin of St. Lucia is obstructed by a bar infested byvoracious sharks, which often greedily swallow the sounding lines and snap at theboathooks of passing craft. In 1875, when these waters were surveyed by the