The World and Its People Part 24

These finally culminate in what is known as Spitz Kop, or Compa.s.s Mountain. From this elevation, eight thousand five hundred feet above the sea, the country gradually declines to the Orange River.

These terraces, on their outer edges, resemble mountain ranges. They run in a direction from east to west, or, as one writer has described them, "parallel to the coast and to each other."

The outer, or the seaboard slopes of the ridges, const.i.tute the best parts of the colony. They are for the most part thickly inhabited. The chief towns and villages are located here, and the fields of grain, the vineyards and orchards, and the tobacco plantations have given the country a well-deserved fame and reputation.

The narrow mountain gorges serve as pa.s.sageways from one terrace to another. They bear the name of "kloofs." Their sides are the only pa.s.ses into the interior. It is believed that the mountain torrents, which flow during certain seasons of the year, have worn deep valleys in their sides, and thus occasioned these kloofs, or mountain pa.s.ses.

Beyond the Zwartebergen, or the Black Mountain, is the great grazing district of Cape Colony. It consists of vast undulating plains, and is known as the Great Karroo.

No trees are found upon the Great Karroo, and but very few shrubs. As soon as the wet season begins, however, this great district is covered with rich verdure and a profusion of flowers. Then the flocks of sheep enjoy all the luxuriance of a paradise of herbage, which clothes field, valley, and hillside alike.

It is at this season that the Great Karroo seems like a beautiful garden. One can scarcely believe the testimony of those who, having visited it a few days before the wet season begins, describe it as a bare, barren, brown waste.

During the summer months this region is dry and dreary in its character.

Little or no running water is to be found, and only after a thundershower are the pools filled. For a brief season then the beds of the streams have running water. They soon run dry, and only by digging deep down in their beds can a scant amount of brackish water be obtained to supply both man and beast until the rainy season begins.

Snow rarely falls upon the coast of Cape Colony, and when it does, it remains but a short time.

The most prominent object seen from Cape Town is Table Mountain, which rises to a height of over thirty-five hundred feet. The summit is sometimes covered with a sprinkling of white, but almost before the people at Cape Town have had time to notice its novel dress, it presents again its wonted aspect.

Cape Colony is by no means the flat, undulating country that many writers would erroneously lead us to believe. On the contrary, it is a wildly picturesque region, with mountainous sections, even, to diversify its character. Interspersed among bold mountain ridges we find light upland tracts and broad elevated plains. While, coursing through the rugged mountain gorges, the drainage of the country finds a path to the Indian or Atlantic Ocean, and even north to the Orange River, and is eventually discharged on the barren northwestern coast. Cape Colony can boast, even within the limits of the sections longest settled by the white man, some of the most picturesque scenery in the world. Hill and valley, barren plain and rich woodland, alternate to add beauty to the landscape.

The rivers of Cape Colony vary as to their extent. The Orange River, though the largest, is so broken up by the various cataracts as to be unsuitable for navigation. This is true of many of the other rivers. A very few of them can be sailed on for a short distance for pleasure, but so short as to be impractical for navigation or transit.

The general appearance of Cape Colony, like that of the whole of the South African region, is dry. During the rainy season the orchids and different bulbous plants give to the ground the appearance of a gayly flowered carpet. The many varieties of heath, for which the Cape is noted, lend a most beautiful character to small patches of territory.

The objects which are most striking to the traveler are, however, the th.o.r.n.y shrubs. These not only manifest themselves to his sight, but to his sense of feeling, as they come in contact with his skin. Mingled with these shrubs are various cactuslike plants. These are quite characteristic of a country where the vegetation must store up moisture during the abundance of the rainy season for the drought of the dry season.

Wheat is grown in the richer sections, together with maize, oats, barley, millet, and Kaffir corn. Rye is raised in some sections, and rice grows well in some of the best undulated districts. Tobacco is grown in many sections, and cotton has been introduced as an experiment.

The Cape still continues to be, to some extent, a hunting ground. In the early days of the colony vast herds of many varieties of the antelope family, lions, giraffes, rhinoceroses, leopards, hyenas, and jackals, roamed over it. Now the hunter must seek his game far to the north of the Orange River.

Ostriches were once common, but are now few. Most of the feathers of these birds are obtained from beyond the borders of the colony, or from tame ones kept on farms and reared from eggs heated artificially. The rearing of ostriches has now become a recognized industry in the Cape.

Many species of venomous snakes are common. Troublesome insects are not so common here as in other parts of Africa.

The chief industry of the colony is wool raising. It has been estimated that there are fifteen million sheep throughout the colony. Many of them are of the Merino breed. These are rapidly displacing the big-tailed sheep raised by the early Dutch settlers. The Angora goat is kept quite extensively for the sake of its long silky hair. Cattle of the finest description are found in every part of the country, the better varieties having displaced those owned by the natives and early settlers.

Among the commonest sights at the colony are the long lines of wagons, which lumber slowly over the roads. These are drawn by six, eight, or even ten yokes of oxen, which subsist upon such scanty herbage as they can find along the road. Coaches are common, and the many railways now form a network across the colony. The latter, valuable as they are for the utility of the country, can never rival the picturesqueness of the typical Cape wagon, which, doubtless, for many years will continue to be the most characteristic mode of South African travel.

The history of Cape Colony is one of many vicissitudes. The various Kaffir wars, nine in all, together with the five seasons of warfare with the Basuto tribes, were enough to paralyze and cripple the energies of any government. The peculiar characteristics of the Dutch settlers were not always pleasing to Great Britain, and she had occasion many times to exercise her power in sections to which she could lay any possible claim. Now, however, that the management of their own affairs has pa.s.sed into the hands of the Dutch settlers, Cape Colony has made great progress towards good government and prosperity.

The chief industries still continue to be pastoral and agricultural. In the vicinity of the Great Karroo grazing plains, agriculture can be carried on only where there is running water. Consequently, much labor has been expended in making reservoirs, the waters of which irrigate the gardens and orchards. The sinking of artesian wells has recently been attempted, and has proved a successful experiment.

In the districts which adjoin the eastern border, and on the first and second terraces from the southern coast, where the rainfall is sufficient for all purposes of agriculture and cattle raising, both pursuits are followed. While wheat and maize form the princ.i.p.al crops, oats are raised extensively for horses, and almost every variety of vegetable and fruit is grown in abundance.

In this portion of the colony, namely the southwestern corner, which was founded as early as the seventeenth century, the vine, as well as wheat, is largely cultivated.

In the middle of the present century, rich copper mines were opened in that portion called Namaqualand. This part of the colony had long been regarded as the least valuable of any of the provinces.

To quote from Theal's _South Africa_, in the _The Story of the Nations_ series: "It is impossible to give the value of the purely colonial products, but the quant.i.ty from the whole of South Africa exported in the year that ended on the 30th of June, 1893, was valued at a little over thirteen and a half million pounds sterling, of which twelve and a quarter million pa.s.sed through the ports of Cape Colony, and one million and a quarter through Durban, Natal."

This same writer tells us: "Of the items that made up this amount gold was first, being valued at four millions and a half, and diamonds came next, being valued at nearly four millions. The copper ore exported was worth over a quarter of a million, and the coal over fifty thousand pounds.

"These figures, representing nearly two-thirds of the total exports, show the importance of the mining industry of South Africa, and it must be remembered that this industry is only in its infancy."

Among the other exports may be mentioned wool, Angora hair, hides, skins, horns, and ostrich feathers. These have been increased in value about tenfold since 1850.

Nearly everything in the way of agricultural products is required for home use. Some fruits and grains are, however, sent out of the country.

Among the agricultural products that find a foreign market may be named aloes, bark for tanning purposes from Natal, and dried flowers from Cape Colony. The fisheries, too, not only supply enormous quant.i.ties of food for home consumption, but also export largely to Mauritius. Natal furnishes also great quant.i.ties of sugar.

It is interesting to learn that the supply of fish which the harbor of Cape Town affords is apparently inexhaustible. Not only is there a great variety of species, but there are several that are very wholesome and of a fine flavor.

The Cape salmon, in size and appearance somewhat resembling that of Britain, and the snook, a voracious marine pike, are both very abundant.

After an excursion of a few hours, boats often return laden with these fish, which are sold very cheap, and form the princ.i.p.al food of the colored population. At the west end of Cape Town, fish may be seen suspended on long lines, as clothes are with us, that they may be dried; and vast quant.i.ties are salted for exportation, Mauritius being the princ.i.p.al market.

Fishing for snook is a source of amus.e.m.e.nt. They may be caught while the boat is in motion, by trailing a leaded hook astern, with some white streamers of rag attached, or when at anchor, by alternately throwing the bait to a distance and drawing it quickly back. Penguins, Cape pigeons, albatross, and some kinds of sea gull, surround the boat, while flocks of gannets and cormorants fly around the fishermen.

The Cape pigeons are an interesting feature about Cape Colony. They seem to welcome the arrival of each ship in the harbor, and to take delight in the sight of mankind about them. After a storm, and when the wind has subsided so that the surface of the ocean becomes calm, these Cape pigeons settle upon the water and swim gayly about, like ducks in a pond, and with as little fear, apparently, of any danger.

It is no uncommon thing for the sailors on board ship to bait their hooks and catch these pigeons as they would fish. It seems a cruel sport, yet the rest of the crew will line the side of the ship and find amus.e.m.e.nt in watching what they call "the fun" with the poor creatures.

If caught and placed in a hen coop till morning, they will, on being released, stagger awkwardly about over the slippery deck; for they are unable to take to the wing unless they can have some good starting point, as the edge of a ship's railing or the crest of a heaving wave.

In captivity, if kept alone, they are peaceable; but if not in solitary confinement they are very quarrelsome, and fight continually.

Their powers of flight are somewhat remarkable. When a ship is going at the rate of two hundred miles a day, the Cape pigeon will hover around it, sheer off or approach it, and soar aloft or descend, as if the vessel were absolutely stationary. They really fly without much effort.

It is interesting to watch their flight; for it seems to consist of a series of maneuvers, as they fly, now against the wind, when they always ascend, thus taking advantage of its force; now before the wind, when they descend, that little exertion may be needed to keep them above water; then, whirling rapidly, like a hawk, to exhaust their speed when wishing to check their rapid flight.

Very different in character is the albatross, one of the most conspicuous of the birds which follow the ships that plow the ocean.

When on the wing his appearance is very striking. In solemn, even flight he soars along with outstretched pinions measuring from fifteen to eighteen feet between the tips. Scarcely seeming to stir, he appears rather to float along in his course.

Now and then, with a slow flapping of his wings, he mounts higher into the air; but he seems to scorn the swift motion and animated flutter that characterize the movements of other birds.

Like a specter, he sails silently along almost close to you. His still, motionless form would seem devoid of life were it not that his keen, piercing eye and an occasional quick turn of the head, which gives him a sharp, prying expression, betray him.

But, if you wish to see a complete transformation scene, throw a piece of rusty pork overboard, and the long, curiously crooked beak employs its enormous strength in a manner very suggestive of life and energy.

Now and then the black petrel, with its piercing eye, darts across the ship's stern, while the stormy petrel flutters just overhead, yet beyond the reach of a gun. Truly, the entrance to Cape Colony is as novel as it is interesting, and is filled with pleasant pictures.

CHAPTER x.x.xV.

ANNEXATIONS TO CAPE COLONY.