Tugela River
Template:Short description Template:Other uses Template:Use South African English Template:Infobox river
The Tugela River (Template:Langx; Template:Langx) is the largest river in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. With a total length of Template:Cvt, and a drop of 1Template:Thinsp370 metres in the lower 480 km,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> it is one of the most important rivers of the country.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The river originates in Mont-aux-Sources of the Drakensberg Mountains at an elevation of 3Template:Thinsp282 metres<ref name="EB1911">Template:Cite EB1911 This has a very detailed description of the river's course.</ref> and plunges in five distinct free-leaping falls 947 metres down the Tugela Falls. The Mont-aux-Sources is also the origin of tributaries of two other major South African rivers, the Orange and the Caledon River. From the Drakensberg range, the Tugela follows a Template:Cvt route through the KwaZulu-Natal midlands before flowing into the Indian Ocean.<ref name="DWAF-ThukelaWMA-A">Template:Cite web</ref> The total catchment area is approximately Template:Cvt.<ref name="DWAF-ThukelaWMA-A"/> Land uses in the catchment are mainly rural subsistence farming and commercial forestry.
Tributaries
The Tugela is fed by a number of tributaries coming off the Drakensberg, the largest being the Mzinyathi ("Buffalo") River (rising near Majuba Hill). Others are the Little Tugela River, Klip River (rising near Van Reenen Pass), Mooi River, Blood River, Sundays River (rising in the Biggarsberg) Ingagani River and Bushman River.<ref name="DWAF-ThukelaWMA-A"/><ref>Thukela WMA 7</ref> The Buffalo River joins the Tugela some Template:Cvt east of Tugela Ferry at Template:Coord.
The Blood River was named by the Boers, led by Andries Pretorius, after they defeated the Zulu king Dingane on 16 December 1838. The river is said to have run red with the blood of Zulu warriors. Below the Blood River is Rorke's Drift, a crossing point and a battle site, in the Anglo-Zulu War.<ref name="EB1911"/>
Ecology
The scaly yellowfish (Labeobarbus natalensis) is found in the Tugela River System. It is a common endemic fish in KwaZulu-Natal Province and it is found in different habitats between the Drakensberg foothills and the coastal lowlands, including rivers such as the Umkomazi.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Spelling
The spelling Tugela was used for most of the twentieth century; it is an Anglicised version of the Zulu name Thukela. Nineteenth-century writers adopted a variety of spellings including:
- Isaacs (1836) used a number of different spellings in his book, Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> including Ootergale and Ootoogale.
- C.R. Maclean (John Ross), writing in the Nautical Magazine in 1853, used the spelling Zootagoola<ref>Template:Cite magazine Reproduced in Template:Cite book</ref>
- George French Angas, a nineteenth-century artist, used the name Tugala on the captions to his sketches.<ref>"Making outchoualla or native beer, at Gudu's kraal, Tugala River, Zulu country", a sketch by G F Angas; National Library of Australia.</ref>
Some of the variations can be accounted for by the early European writers being unaware that Zulu grammar uses prefixes, often a "i-" or a "u-", to denote the noun class of a noun.
See also
- Dams on the Tugela