The gorges between these determine the direction of the river-beds whereby the rainfall pours down to the sea; and the general easterly course thus imparted is maintained and continued by the lie of the valleys, separating the successive hills through which the territory of Natal gradually rises to the northward.

These various streams find their way sooner or later to the Tugela, itself one of the many, but which carries its own name until it reaches the Indian Ocean, some fifty miles north-east of Durban.
Of these watercourses, the Tugela, which the road crosses at Colenso, and the Mooi, some {p.020} fifty miles south, have been most often mentioned.

Another tributary called the Klip flows through the camp at Ladysmith.

The channels which these streams have cut for themselves in time of torrent are both steep-banked and deep.

They are therefore among those accidents of the ground which, duly improved, can seriously affect military operations.