“The Draakberg, instead of being considered as one continuous chain of mountains, may be more correctly divided into two, of different geological structure, and having different directions: the one forming the north-western boundary I shall call the Great Draakberg; and the other, forming the western boundary, the Small Draakberg.
“The north-western portion of the Draakberg is of the average altitude of five thousand feet above the sea, and about fifteen hundred feet above the general level of the country at its base.
“The outline is in general round and soft, presenting some remarkable features, and occasionally high table-lands with precipitous sides. These mountains are composed of beds of sandstone, cut through by veins of trap, and diminish in height as they advance to the north-east, until at some distance beyond the source of the Umzinyati they appear to terminate in low hills. They are passable almost at any part by horses and cattle; but there are only three passes in use by the Boers, one near Bezuidenhout’s Farm, in latitude 28 degrees 33 minutes South and longitude 28 degrees 44 minutes East; and one at De Beer’s, in latitude 28 degrees 20 minutes South and longitude 28 degrees 52 minutes East, and another a little more to the south-west of Bezuidenhout’s. The two former are in constant use; the latter rarely.
“Timber abounds in the kloofs on the south-eastern side of the mountain. On the north-west the country is much higher, being a plain of great elevation.
“The Great Draakberg, or that portion of it which forms the western boundary, has a direction N.N.W. and S.S.E. The junction of this with the former, or Small Draakberg, is ten or twelve miles to the S.W. of Bezuidenhout’s Pass:—from this part the Utukela rises.
“These mountains are much higher than the others, and are quite impassable, presenting a rugged outline and bold and precipitous escarpments. From a distant view, from the nature of the outline (not having been near them) I infer that they are granitic.
“The area of this district, from the ascertained and assumed boundaries will be much greater than has hitherto been supposed. It cannot, I imagine, be less than 13,500 instead of 10,000 square miles. At the same time it must be remembered, that if I find by my future observations, (which I think will very probably be the case) the same amount of error, and in the same direction in the southern portion of the district, of which at present I know nothing, as I have found in the northern, the area will be increased by a great quantity, and may not fall far short of 16,000 square miles, as a small deviation in the assigned direction of the Great Draakberg will easily make that quantity.
“The district is everywhere covered with vegetation, either in the form of luxuriant grass, which grows to a great height, or thorns and low bushes. Timber trees only grow in kloofs on sides of hills, excepting a belt which runs along the sea-coast.
“Water abounds in every part, and flowing streams cross the path at intervals of only a few miles. In the winter some of these become dry, but then water may always be obtained at moderate distances.
“The soil is in all cases well adapted for cultivation, and on the alluvial lands near rivers particularly so, producing much larger crops than are ever grown in the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope.