southern, coast of Sumatra, and the Maldives and Laccadives, on the west of the Indian peninsula. As most of the species of the different corals forming these reefs cannot exist in water beyond a certain depth, the deep sea at present intervening between such widely separated groups of islands would have formed an impassable barrier to them ; and thus the conviction seems forced upon us that most of these coral-reefs are now crowning the tops of the ancient mountains of a subsiding continent, along the shores of which the various genera of shells and other animals could have migrated — as much as we are impressed with the belief that the table tops of the Great Winterberg, the Groot Tafelberg, the Twee Tafelbergen, and others previously mentioned (see sketch, fig. 17) prove the existence of the elevated plateau that must at one time have occupied a large portion of Southern Africa.
Table of Elevations from Eland's Post (Kat River) to the Banks of the Orange River, near Aliwal. Taken by Mr. A. N. Ella, Government Inspector of Roads, and Mr. J. Graham, of Aliwal.
Locality.
Eland's Post, Kat River
Katberg, highest point of road . . .
Ditto, flat on the north side, near road
Whittlesea
Queenstown
Klopper's Fontein
Flat between Klopper's Fontein and foot of Pen Hoek
Foot of Pen Hoek, Stormberg
Summit of ditto, ditto
Burghersdorp
Banks of Orange River, near Aliwal
The flat around Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange River, Free State
Graham
feet.
2200
4800
3100
4600
4800
4300
5300
Ella.
feet.
5332
3432
5068
5596
4382
4224
Locality.
The Great Winterberg is the culminating point of the Kat and Winterberg Mountains
Hangklip is the culminating point of the Andriesberg, an outlier of the Stormberg
Spitzkop or Compassberg is the culminating point of the Stormberg and Sneewbergen
Hall.
feet.
7800
6800
Lieut. Sherwell.
10,259*.
Hall.
feet,
Gaika's Kop,
6800
- Monts-des -Sources, in Basouta-land, is said to be the highest point in South
Africa ; but its exact height is not known.
