THE COUNTRY OF THE AFRICANDERS.
Some knowledge of the physical structure of South Africa is necessary
to an understanding of its resources, economic conditions and the
longstanding political problems which, to all appearance, are now
nearing a final solution.
Nature has divided that part of Africa lying south of the Zambesi River
into three distinct and well-defined regions. A strip of lowland skirts
the coast of the Indian Ocean all the way from Cape Town around to
Natal, Delagoa Bay and still northeast to the mouths of the Zambesi.
Between Durban, the principal port of Natal, and Cape Town this strip
is very narrow in places—the hills coming down almost to the margin of
the sea. Beyond Durban, to the northeast, the low plain grows wider.
This belt of lowland is more or less swampy, and from Durban northward
is exceedingly malarious and unhealthful. This feature is a prime
factor in the physical structure of the country and has had much to do
with shaping its history.
The second region is composed of the elevated and much broken surface
presented by the Drakensburg or Quathlamba range of mountains, reaching
from Cape Town to the Zambesi Valley—a distance of sixteen hundred
miles. In traveling inland, after leaving the level belt, at from
thirty to sixty miles from the sea the hills rise higher and
higher—from three thousand to six thousand feet. These hills are only
the spurs of the principal range, some of whose peaks rise to an
elevation of eleven thousand feet.
Beyond the Quathlamba Mountains, to the west and north, is the third
natural division of South Africa—a vast tableland or plateau, varying
from three thousand to five thousand feet above the sea level. This
region occupies about seven-eighths of the area of South Africa.
To a bird’s-eye view of the country the physical scheme is exceedingly
simple—a great plateau filling the interior, a belt of lowland
bordering the Indian Ocean and one principal mountain range between the
two.
Geologically considered, the oldest formation is found in the northern
part of the tableland and toward the northeastern end of the Quathlamba
Mountains. The principal formations in this region are granite and
gneiss, believed to be of great antiquity—probably of the same age as
the Laurentian formations in America. The rocks of the Karoo district
are not so ancient. There are no traces anywhere in South Africa of
late volcanic action, nor has any active volcano been discovered there;
but eruptive rocks of ancient date—porphyries and greenstones—are found
overlying the sedimentary deposits in the Karoo district and in the
mountain systems of Basutoland and the Orange Free State.
The African coast is notably poor in harbors. There is no haven between
Cape Town and Durban. From Durban to the Zambesi there are but two good
ports—that of Delagoa Bay and Beira. With the exception of Saldanha
Bay, twenty miles north of Cape Town, the western coast, for a thousand
miles, has no harbor.
The temperature in Southern Africa is much lower than the latitude
would lead one to expect. This is accounted for by the fact that there
is a vast preponderance of water in the southern hemisphere, which has
the effect of giving a cooler temperature than prevails in a
corresponding northern latitude. The difference in both heat and cold
represents over two degrees of difference in latitude. Thus, Cape Town,
34° S., has a lower temperature in both summer and winter than
Gibraltar and Aleppo, in 36° N. Nevertheless, the thermometer registers
high in some parts of South Africa. Even at Durban, in latitude 30° S.,
the heat is often severe, and the northern part of the Transvaal and
the British territories to the north of it lie within the Tropic of
Capricorn. The mean temperature in South Africa proper is 70°
Fahrenheit in January and 80° in July.
Over most of the country the climate is exceptionally dry. In the
region of Cape Colony there are well-defined summer and winter; but in
the rest of South Africa for about two-thirds of the year there is only
a dry season, when the weather is cooler, and a wet season of four or
five months, when the sun is the highest and the heat is most intense.
The rainy season is not so continuous, nor is there so great a
precipitation, as in some other hot countries. In the parts where the
rainfall is heaviest, averaging over thirty inches in the year, the
moisture soon disappears by evaporation and absorption, and the surface
remains parched till the next wet season. As a consequence of this the
air is generally dry, clear and stimulating.
It is interesting to note the effect upon climate of the physical
structure described above. The prevailing and rain-bringing winds are
from the east and the southeast. They bring sufficient moisture to the
low plain along the sea coast, and passing inland the rain-bearing
clouds water the foothills of the Quathlamba Mountains and precipitate
snow on the loftier peaks beyond them. A portion of the moisture is
carried still farther to the west and falls in showers on the eastern
part of the plateau—the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, the eastern
border of Bechuanaland and the region northward toward the Zambesi.
Sections farther to the north and west receive but little of the annual
rainfall, ranging from five to ten inches in the year. That little is
soon dissipated, the surface becomes dry and hard, and such vegetation
as springs up under the brief showers soon dies. Much of this region is
a desert, and so must remain until more and more continuous moisture is
supplied, either by artificial irrigation or by some favorable change
in natural conditions.
From these permanent physical features—the lowlands along the coast,
the elevated plateau in the interior, the mountain range running
between them, a burning sun and a dry atmosphere—have developed many of
the other natural phenomena of South Africa.
The rivers of that country—laid down in great numbers on the maps—are
not rivers during much of the year. In the dry season they are either
without water altogether or consist of a succession of little pools
scarcely sufficient to supply the cattle on their banks with drink. And
when they are rivers they are, most of the time, such as can neither be
forded nor navigated; the violent rains—continuing for hours and
sometimes for many days—have converted them into roaring torrents.
Now, if that country could have been entered by waterways, as were
North and South America, it would not have remained an unknown land so
long. But there was no other means of penetrating it than the lumbering
ox-wagon, making at best a dozen miles a day, with frequent long halts
in the neighborhood of good grass in order to rest and recuperate the
cattle. It is this lack of navigable rivers that now compels the people
to depend exclusively on railways for internal transportation and
travel. With the exception of tidal streams there is no internal water
communication of any value.
Another peculiarity of the east coast rivers arises out of the nearness
of the Quathlamba Mountains to the sea. Such rivers as take their rise
in the mountains have very short courses, and the few that come from
beyond, finding channels through the mountain passes, are so obstructed
by rapids and cataracts at the point of descent from the higher levels
that no boat can ascend them.
South Africa presents to the foreigner from cooler climates no serious
danger as to health. The sun-heat would be trying were it not for the
dryness of the atmosphere and the invariable coolness of the nights,
which have the effect of a refreshing tonic. With due care in providing
sufficient wraps for the occasional cold day in the dry season, and the
means of comfortable sleep during the cool nights, there is nothing to
fear.
The much-dreaded malarial fever has its habitat in the lowlands of both
the east and the west coast. Persons who are not immune to it can
choose their place of residence on the higher lands, or take refuge in
quinine.
The dryness and purity of the air in many parts of South Africa—notably
Ceres, Kimberley, Beauport West and other places in the interior
plateau—make it peculiarly suitable for persons suffering from any form
of chest disease—always excepting tuberculosis, for which the sure
remedy has not yet been discovered. But even the victims of that malady
find atmospheric and other conditions friendly to a prolongation of
life in the salubrious air and sunshine of the South African
tablelands.
On the whole, there can be no question as to the general good effect
upon health of the South African climate. Europeans and Americans
living therein pursue their athletic sports with all the zest
experienced in their native climates, and the descendants of the
original Dutch and Huguenot settlers—now in the sixth and seventh
generations—have lost nothing of the stature nor of the physical energy
that characterized their forefathers.
South Africa used to be the habitat of an unusually rich fauna. The
lion, leopard, elephant, giraffe, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, antelope in
thirty-one species, zebra, quagga, buffalo and various other wild
creatures—some of them savage, and all of them beautiful after their
kind—abounded. But of late years all this has been changed. Since
firearms have been greatly improved and cheapened and the country has
been opened to the Nimrods of the world and the swarming natives have
procured guns and learned to use them, the wild animals have been
thinned out. There are now but two regions in South Africa where big
game can be killed in any great numbers—the Portuguese territory from
the Zambesi to Delagoa Bay, and the adjoining eastern frontier of the
Transvaal.
Snakes of various kinds and sizes, from the poisonous black mamba to
the python that grows to over twenty feet in length, used to infest
many parts of the country, but they have almost disappeared from the
temperate regions inhabited by the whites.
The farmers’ worst enemies are not now the great beasts and reptiles of
former years, but the baboons, which gather in the more rocky districts
and kill the lambs, and two species of insects—the white ants and the
locusts—which sometimes ravage the eastern coast.
Beyond that of most countries in the world of equal extent the flora of
South Africa is rich in both genera and species. The neighborhood of
Cape Town and the warm, sub-tropical regions of eastern Cape Colony and
Natal are specially affluent in beautiful flowers. In the Karoo
district, and northeastward over the plateau into Bechuanaland and the
Transvaal, vegetation presents but little variety of aspect, owing in
part to the general sameness of geological formations and in part to
the prevailing dryness of the surface.
In general, South Africa is comparatively bare of forests—a fact for
which denudation by man cannot account, for it is yet a country new to
civilization. Some primitive forests are to be found on the south coast
of Cape Colony and in Natal. These have been put under the care of a
Forest Department of the government. In the great Knysna forest wild
elephants still roam at large. The trees, however, even in the
preserved forests, are small, few of them being more than fifty or
sixty feet in height. The yellowwood grows the tallest, but the less
lofty sneezewood is the most useful to man. Up the hillsides north of
Graham’s Town and King William’s Town are immense tracts of scrub from
four to eight feet high, with occasional patches of prickly pear—a
formidable invader from America, through which both men and cattle make
their passage at the cost of much effort and many irritating wounds
from the sharp spines. A large part of this region, being suitable for
little else, has been utilized for ostrich farming.
In the Karoo district and northward through Cape Colony, western
Bechuanaland and the German possessions in Namaqualand and Damaraland—a
desert region—there are few trees except small and thorny mimosas.
Farther east, where there is a greater rainfall, the trees are more
numerous and less thorny. The plain around Kimberley, once well wooded,
has been stripped of its trees to furnish props for the diamond mines
and fuel.
The lack of forests is one of the principal drawbacks to the
development of South Africa. Timber is everywhere costly; the rainfall
is less than it would be if the country were well wooded; and when
rains do come the moisture is more rapidly dissipated by absorption,
evaporation and sudden freshets because of the absence of shade. Of
late energetic measures have been taken to supply nature’s lack by
artificial forestry. On the great veldt plateau in the vicinity of
Kimberley and of Pretoria and in other localities the people have
planted the Australian gum tree, the eucalyptus and several varieties
of European trees, including the oak, which, besides being useful, is
very beautiful. If the practice be continued the country will reap an
incalculable benefit, not only in appearance, but also in climatic
conditions.
The largest political division of South Africa is Cape Colony. The area
is about 292,000 square miles and the population, white and native, is
2,011,305. The whites number about 400,000. But little of it is
suitable for agriculture, and considerable portions of it are too arid
for stock raising. Including the natives the population is only about
seven to the square mile. On the lowlands skirting the sea on the south
and west are some fruitful regions that give a profitable yield of
grapes and corn. On the tableland of the interior there is a rainfall
of only from five to fifteen inches in the year. As a consequence the
surface is dry and unfriendly to vegetable life. In an area of three
hundred miles by one hundred and fifty there is not a stream having a
current throughout the year, nor is there any moisture at all in the
dry season except some shallow pools which are soon dried up by
evaporation. Nevertheless, in this desert, bare of trees and of
herbage, there is abundance of prickly shrubs, which are sufficiently
succulent when they sprout under the summer rains to afford good
browsing for goats and sheep. In the northwestern part of the interior
and northward to Kimberley and Mafeking, the country is better watered
than the more westerly regions, and grazing animals find a generous
growth of grass as well as nutritious shrubs. In the southeastern part
the rainfall is still heavier. The foothills of the Quathlamba Range
toward the sea are covered in places with forests, the grass is more
abundant and much of the land can be tilled to profit without
artificial irrigation. In 1899 there were about 3,000 miles of railway
and nearly 7,000 miles of telegraph open in the colony. The number of
vessels entering the ports of Cape Colony in 1897 was 1,093, with a
total tonnage of 2,694,370 tons; in addition to this there were 1,278
vessels engaged in the coastwise trade, with a tonnage of 3,725,831
tons. The foreign commerce of Cape Colony is large, including, as it
does, the bulk of the import and export trade of all South Africa. The
total importation of merchandise for 1897 was $80,127,495, and the
exports, including a large proportion of the gold and diamond products
of Kimberley and the Transvaal, amounted, in 1898, to $123,213,458.
Natal, beyond any other part of South Africa, is favored by natural
advantages. It lies on the seaward slope of the Quathlamba Mountains,
and its scenery is charmingly diversified by some of the lesser peaks
and the foothills of that range. It is well watered by perennial
streams fed by the snows and springs of the mountains. While the higher
altitudes to the west are bare, there is abundance of grass lower down
and toward the coast there is plenty of wood. The climate in general is
much warmer than that of Cape Colony; in the low strip bordering the
sea it is almost tropical. This high temperature is not caused so much
by latitude as by the current in the Mozambique Channel, which brings
from the tropical regions of the Indian Ocean a vast stream of warm
water, which acts on the climate of Natal as does the Gulf Stream on
that of Georgia and the Carolinas. Nearly the whole of Natal may be
counted temperate; the soil is rich, the scenery is beautiful, and,
with the exception of certain malarious districts at the north, the
climate is healthful. Foreigners from Europe and America may reasonably
hope to enjoy long life and prosperity in it. The principal crop for
export is sugar, but cereals of all kinds, coffee, indigo, arrowroot,
ginger, tobacco, rice, pepper, cotton and tea are grown to profit. The
coal fields of the colony are large, the output in 1897 being 244,000
tons. There are 487 miles of railway, built and operated by the
government. The imports in 1897 amounted to nearly $30,000,000. Pop.
828,500; whites, 61,000.
The Orange Free State, in its entire area of 48,000 square miles, is on
the great interior plateau at an altitude of from 4,000 to 5,000 feet
above the sea level. The surface is mostly level, but there are
occasional hills—some of them rising to a height of 6,000 feet. The
land is, for the most part, bare of trees, but affords good grazing for
two-thirds of the year. The air is remarkably pure and bracing. There
are no blizzards to encounter. There are, however, occasional violent
thunderstorms, which precipitate enormous hailstones—large enough to
kill the smaller animals, and even men. Notwithstanding the generally
parched appearance of the country, the larger streams do not dry up in
winter. The southeastern part of the Free State, particularly the
valley of the Caledon River, is one of the best corn-growing regions in
Africa. In the main, however, with the exception of the river valleys,
the land is more suitable for pasture than for tillage. The grazing
farms are large and require the services of but few men; as a
consequence the population increases slowly. The Free State,
corresponding in size to the State of New York, has only about 80,000
white inhabitants and 130,000 natives. The chief industry is
agriculture and stock-raising. A railway, constructed by the Cape
Colony government, connects Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange
Free State, with the ports of Cape Colony and Natal, and with Pretoria,
the capital of the South African Republic.
The South African Republic, commonly called the Transvaal, is 119,139
square miles in area. The white population, numbering 345,397, is
largely concentrated in the Witwatersrand mining district. The native
inhabitants number 748,759. All the Transvaal territory belongs to the
interior plateau, with the exception of a strip of lower land on the
eastern and northern borders. This lower section is malarious. It is
thought, however, that drainage and cultivation will correct this, as
they have done in other fever districts. Like the Free State, the
Transvaal is principally a grazing country. The few trees that exist in
the more sheltered parts are of little value, except those in the lower
valleys. The winters are severely cold, and the burning sun of summer
soon dries up the moisture and bakes the soil, causing the grass to be
stunted and yellow during most of the year. Until about sixteen years
ago there was little in the surface appearance and known resources of
the Transvaal to attract settlers, and nothing to make it a desirable
possession to any other people than its Africander inhabitants. In 1884
discoveries of gold were made, the first of which that excited the
world being some rich auriferous veins on the Sterkfontein farm. In a
little time it became known that probably the richest deposit of gold
in the world was in the Witwatersrand district of the Transvaal. Later,
in 1897, diamonds were discovered in the Transvaal, the first stone
having been picked up at Reitfontein, near the Vaal River, in August of
that year. Since then the precious crystals have been found in the
Pretoria district, in Roodeplaats on the Pienaars River, at
Kameelfontein and at Buffelsduff. The output of gold in 1898 was
$68,154,000, and of diamonds $212,812.01. The total output of gold
since it was first discovered amounts to over $300,000,000, with
$3,500,000,000 “in sight,” as valued by experts. The commerce of the
South African Republic, while necessarily great because of the large
number of people employed by the mining industries, cannot be as
accurately stated as that of states whose imports are all received
through a given port or ports. Foreign goods reach it through several
ports in Cape Colony, Natal, Portuguese East Africa, and in smaller
quantities from other ports on the coast. The total imports for 1897
are estimated at $107,575,000.
Griqualand West, a British possession bordering on Cape Colony on the
south and on the Free State on the east, owes its chief importance to
the Kimberley diamond mines, near the western boundary of the Free
State and 600 miles from Cape Town. These mines were opened in 1868 and
1869. It is estimated that since that time $350,000,000 worth of
diamonds in the rough—worth double that sum after cutting—have been
taken out. This enormous production would have been greatly exceeded
had not the owners of the various mines in the group formed an
agreement by which the annual output was limited to a small excess over
the annual demand in the world’s diamond markets. So plentiful is the
supply, and so inexpensive, comparatively, is the cost of mining that
other diamond-producing works have almost entirely withdrawn from the
industry since the South African mines were opened. It has been
estimated that ninety-eight per cent of the diamonds of commerce are
now supplied by these mines.
The British protectorate of Bechuanaland, lying to the north of Cape
Colony and Griqualand and to the west of the Transvaal, has an area of
about 213,000 square miles, with a population of 200,000—mostly
natives. A railway and telegraph line connect it with Cape Colony on
the south and Rhodesia on the north.
Rhodesia includes the territory formerly known as British South Africa
and a large part of that known as British East Africa. The area is
about 750,000 square miles—equal to about one-fourth of the area of the
United States of America, excluding Alaska. No exact statement of
population can be made; estimates range from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000, of
which only about 6,000 are whites. The entire territory is under the
administration of the British South African Company, organized and
incorporated in 1889, subject to the British High Commissioner at Cape
Town. Rhodesia lies chiefly within the tablelands of South Africa and
has large but yet undeveloped resources, including grazing and
agricultural lands and important mining districts. Owing to the newness
of the country to civilization no definite statement can be made
relative to its commerce. In all probability Rhodesia will open a field
wherein enterprise along the lines favored by its natural resources and
conditions will be richly rewarded.
THE END.