The country, too, is more difficult, the obstacles to movement, which also favour defence, increasing as the frontier is approached, and culminating on the borders of the Free State and the Transvaal.

Being thus nearer, the latter are here better able to concentrate and sustain opposition than they are on the western flank.
"The mountains which on the edge of Basutoland rise to a height of ten thousand feet," writes Mr.Bryce, "break down toward Natal in tremendous precipices.

Near Ladysmith the frontier of the Orange Free State coincides with a high watershed, crossed by only a few passes."[2] Where this boundary between {p.018} Natal and the Free State ends, that of the Transvaal begins, and soon after turns sharply to the southward, the new direction forming with the old a very acute angle, with apex to the north.

Here, just within the territory of Natal, is Majuba Hill, whose name has been in the mouths of all men, and Laing's Nek, less familiarly known.

The narrow neck of rugged country embraced between the legs of this angle is about sixty miles long, from Majuba to Glencoe.