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CLOUD EFFECTS. — To be at the summit of Mont aux Sources at a time when the base of the mountain is enshrouded in clouds is very enchanting. As far as the eye can see the clouds appear as fields of snow with mountain peaks projecting through, whilst detached fragments come stealing up the mountain sides to be hurriedly dispersed by contrary breezes —

— so soon as they reach the summit.

The descent through the pass is made during the afternoon, and the cave reached before sundown.

THE THIRD DAY. — The following day is spent more leisurely in returning to the hostel over the same route taken on the forward journey. Upon arrival all is again bustle.

A hot bath and a cup of tea soon compensates for any fatigue which the excursion may have entailed, and the invigorating mountain air has again stimulated the appetite of the traveller.

With the return to Aberfeldy station by cart, thence by rail to our destination, a very pleasant and instructive holiday comes all too soon to an end.

It is neither essential nor desirable that the tour described be taken in the short time indicated, and the time can be extended by arrangement with Mr. T. Casement of Rydal Mount.

Notes on the Geology of the Drakensberg Range

By William Anderson, f.r.s.e., f.g.s.. late Government Geologist, Natal

The Kahlamba or Drakensberg Mountains forming the western boundary of Natal, are mountains of denudation, and are a magnificent example of subaerial erosion. Their Natal aspect presents the denuded eastern edge of the plateau of the high veld, which forms the major portions of Basutoland, Orange Free State, and the Southern Transvaal. The range, as a range, only appears so from the eastern Natal side, because the denudation caused by the Natal rivers, the larger and more important of which have their sources in the neighbourhood of the slopes of the Drakensberg, has lowered the level of the whole country from the Drakensberg border to the sea coast. The physical geology of the country has lent itself admirably to this, inasmuch as the strata forming the western half of the Province consists chiefly of shales, with sandstones and occasional basaltic intrusive rocks, which are usually local in occurrence. Nearer the coast the Granite. Metamorphic rocks, and Table Mountain sandstones might have offered an obstruction to the denudation, had it not been for the fact that the last-named formation was of comparative thinness and rests unconformably on the granites, through which erosion is fairly easy. The rivers have thus cut through the outcrops of the various geological formations nearly at right angles, and the result has been that the surface of the country has been formed into a series of plateaux, from the sea coast to the Drakensberg range, the top of which forms the highest plateau.

At the point where Basutoland joins Griqualand East the main Drakensberg range bends south-westward and passes into the Transkeian territory, but from the point mentioned

' Like the baseless fabric of this vision. The cloud-cap't towers, the gorgeous palaces. The solemn temples, the great globe itself. Yea. all which it inherits shall dissolve, And. like this insubstantial pageant faded. Leave not a rack behind."