Southern Africa, the land and its peoples . d the Limpopo, and it is byway of these rivers that nearly all the drainage from the plateaufinally reaches the ocean. The Orange River System. A glance at the map shows at oncethe enormous area of the Orange River basin. The river withits tributaries drains a large part of the South African length is over 1,100 miles, but it suffers from the typicaldrawbacks of South African streams : varying volume, rapids andfalls separating fairly level stretches, and a sand-silted mouth. STKUCTUKK AM) 61 It is thus of no use for navigation
Southern Africa, the land and its peoples . d the Limpopo, and it is byway of these rivers that nearly all the drainage from the plateaufinally reaches the ocean. The Orange River System. A glance at the map shows at oncethe enormous area of the Orange River basin. The river withits tributaries drains a large part of the South African length is over 1,100 miles, but it suffers from the typicaldrawbacks of South African streams : varying volume, rapids andfalls separating fairly level stretches, and a sand-silted mouth. STKUCTUKK AM) 61 It is thus of no use for navigation, and although it traversesalmost the entire width of the sub-continent, it has played 00 pari as ? highway in opening up the plateau, and merely serves to mark political boundaries. The Orange rises high in the Drakensberge, behind Bfont-aux- Sourees. In the first part of its course it Mows through Uasutolandand is joined l>\ many tributaries. A few miles beyond AliwalNorth it receives the alt don, which also rises in Basutoland, and. Photo] ( )lt.\N(ii: 1{ l\ BR, [ Publicity Department. \i iu vi Nun i ii. whose valley-floOT is remarkably fertile. The most westerly of itsperennial tributaries is the Vaal, which rises in the eastern partof the Transvaal High Veld, near Lake Chrissie; and, althoughit discharges a good deal of water into the Orange during the wet season, its volume is variable. Below its confluence with the Vaal the Orange traverses country of very scanty and uncertain rainfall, and from Prieska to theAtlantic it receives very little water from its tributaries, thoughon the map these appear to be of great length. The longesttributary from the south is the Hartebeest, formed by the junctionof the Pish, Zak and Olifants Ylei Rivers. Over considerableperiods their beds are dry, and the* vleis along their courses areseldom more than a few inches deep. The tributary on the northis the Molopo, formed by the Xossob, Molopo and KurumanRivers. These again can har
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