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TUGELA (" Startling ")

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 364 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TUGELA (" Startling ") , a See also:river of See also:south-See also:east See also:Africa, the largest in See also:Natal. It drains, with its tributaries, an See also:area of about 8000 sq. m. The river valley is some rqo m. in length, the river, which has an exceedingly sinuous course is fully 300 m. See also:long. It rises, at an See also:altitude of nearly 11,000 ft. in the See also:Drakensberg mountains on the eastern See also:face of the Mont aux See also:Sources, down which it leaps in a nearly perpendicular fall of 'Soo ft. The river, which starts its See also:race to the ocean with a See also:north-east course, soon bends more directly east, and, with many windings north and south, maintains this See also:general direction across the table-See also:land of north Natal until its junction with the See also:Buffalo river, when it turns south. On its See also:northern See also:bank in its upper course are the heights of Spion Kop and See also:Vaal Kranz, and on its See also:southern bank, 56 m. east in a See also:direct See also:line from its source, is the See also:village of See also:Colenso, all three places being the See also:scene of ineffectual attempts (Dec. 1899-Feb. 19o0) by the See also:British troops under General See also:Sir Redvers See also:Buller to dislodge the Boers who blocked the road to See also:Ladysmith. Below Colenso are more waterfalls, and above the river is Pieter's See also:Hill, the storming of which by the British, on the 27th of See also:February 1900 at length led to the See also:relief of Ladysmith. Six See also:miles See also:lower down the Tugela receives the Klip, which rises in the Drakensberg near See also:Van Reenen's Pass and flows by Ladysmith. Another northern tributary is the See also:Sunday's river, which rises in the Biggarsberg. From the south the river is increased by several affluents, the See also:chief being the Mooi (Beautiful) river.

The Tugela-Mooi confluence is 44 M. south-east of Colenso at the See also:

base of the Biggarsberg. Seven miles farther down the Tugela joins the Buffalo river, the See also:united stream retaining, however, the name Tugela. The Buffalo has its origin in the Drakensberg near See also:Majuba Hill and flows south with, also, a general trend to east. In its course, which is very winding, it receives numerous tributaries, one of them being the Ingogo, a small stream whose name recalls the fight on its See also:banks on the 8th of February 1881, between British and Boers. The chief aflluents are the Ingagani (from the south-See also:west) and the See also:Blood (from the north-east), the last-named so called after the defeat of the Zulu See also:king Dingaan, on the 16th of See also:December 1838, by the Boers under Andries See also:Pretorius, when the river ran red with the blood of the Zulus. Eighteen miles in a direct line below the Blood confluence is Rorke's See also:Drift, or See also:ford across the river, and some 12 M. south-east of the drift is the hill of See also:Isandhlwana, both places rendered famous in the Zulu See also:War of 1878-79. The junction with the Tugela is 30 M. in a direct line, farther south, the Buffalo river in that distance passing through a wooded and hilly region. Below the confluence of the two streams the Tugela flows south-east in a deep channel between lofty cliffs, or through See also:wild, See also:stone-strewn valleys until it reaches the narrow See also:coast See also:belt. Its mouth is nearly closed by a See also:sand See also:bar, formed by the See also:action of the ocean. The Tugela is thus useless for See also:navigation. About 6 m. above the mouth are two forts, See also:Pearson and Tenedos, built by the British in 1879, during the war with the Zulus, to guard the passage of the river. Generally fordable in the See also:winter months, the Tugela is, after the heavy rains of summer, a deep and rapid river.

It is crossed, some 5 m. above the forts, by a railway See also:

bridge—the longest bridge in South Africa. From the junction of the Blood river with the Buffalo, that stream and subsequently the Tugela See also:form the boundary between Natal and See also:Zululand.

End of Article: TUGELA (" Startling ")

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