Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/753

CAPE COLONY 743 Dutch father and a colored mother. The Hot- tentots are the lowest in intellectual grade; those of them who have not been driven into the desert regions are employed as servants and shepherds or herdsmen. The Caffres are usually tall and rohust, varying in color from a dark bronze to a jet black. They practise agriculture to a limited extent, cultivating maize, millet, beans, and watermelons ; they have the art of working in iron, and manufacture a rude sort of earthenware. They practise circumcision, are polygamists, and have many of the worst vices of savages. They are a pastoral rather than an agricultural people; many of them own large herds of cattle, and consider the herds and flocks of the whites as legitimate plunder. The Ma- lays are usually Mohammedans ; they are active and industrious, but passionate and revengeful. Of the whites a small portion are British or of direct British descent, chiefly government offi- cials or traders in the towns, but including a few graziers and sheep farmers. The great ma- jority of the whites are Boers, who are mostly of Dutch descent. (See BOEKS.) The colony receives few accessions from immigration, not more than a few hundreds in any year. From each ocean the country slopes upward N. and E. toward the interior. From the Southern or In- dian ocean it rises in three successive plateaus, increasing in height as they recede from the sea, and each separated from the others by mountain ranges. The first range, the Lange Kloof (Long Pass), runs from W. to E. nearly parallel with the Indian ocean, enclosing between it and the S. coast an irregular belt, from 20 to 60 in. broad, indented with bays, traversed by many streams, having a fertile soil, clothed with plants and shrubs, and here and there a group of forest trees. This plateau has frequent rains and a mild and equable climate. The second range, the main portion of which is called the Groote Zwarte Bergen (Great Black mountains), and the smaller, toward the west, the Kleine Zwarte (Little Black), runs nearly parallel with the Lange Kloof, but is loftier and more rugged, sometimes reaching to the height of 4,000 ft., and consisting in some parts of double and treble ranges. The plateau between this and the Lange Kloof has an average breadth of 40 m. Its surface is varied; in some parts are steep barren hills ; in others karroos, plains of arid clay, with here and there a patch of watered and fertile land. The climate of this plateau is less equable than that of the former one. The third range are the Nieuwveld (New Field) mountains. For 200 m., between Ion. 21 45' and 25 E., the Nieuwveld runs nearly parallel with the Groote Zwarte, at a distance of about 80 m. and nearly on the parallel of 32 S. Its E. extremity is called the Sneeuwbergen (Snow mountains), the highest range in S. Africa, the loftiest summit reaching to about 10,000 ft. In about Ion. 25 E. it sends off two branches, one N. E., the other S. E. On the west, in Ion. 20 45' E., the Nieuwveld joins with a range running N. W., nearly parallel with the Atlan- tic coast. This range, known as the Roggeyeld (Rye mountains), has an elevation of 5,000 ft. toward the south, while at the extreme north of the colony the Atlantic coast range reaches a height estimated at 9,000 ft. What may bo considered the habitable part of the colony con- stitutes less than a half of the whole. It lies mainly on the narrow slope toward the Atlan- tic, W. of the Roggeveld mountains, and the broader plateau S. of the Nieuwveld range, facing the Indian ocean. In this region, be- tween the Nieuwveld and the Groote Zwarte mountains, is the Great Karroo, nearly 300 m. long and 80 broad. It is not strictly a desert, but rather a table land 3,000 ft. above the sea, thinly covered with an argillaceous soil resting upon a substratum of rock and gravel, with here and there steep slaty hills, and traversed by streams running southward, which become torrents after a rain storm, but in dry seasons are merely chains of shallow pools, barely suffi- cient to afford water to the herds of wild ani- mals which resort to them by night. The re- mainder of the habitable part is fairly adapted to agriculture. The colony has a coast line of about 1,225 m., broken by numerous bays, the principal of which are St. Helena, Saldanha, and Table bays on the W. coast; False bay, with its indentation St. Simon bay, St. Sebas- tian, Mossel, Plettenberg, St. Francis, and Al- goa bays oa the S. coast. Notwithstanding this great extent of coast line, there are few har- bors. Saldanha bay, 65 m. N. N. W. of Cape Town, is the best. In Table bay, at Cape Town, ships lie safely from September to May, during the prevalence of the S. W. monsoon ; but from June to August, when the N. W. winds set in, | they are obliged to take refuge in Simon bay, I on the opposite side of the peninsula of Cape | Good Hope. Simon bay is the station of the j British Cape squadron, and is frequented by vessels to and from India. Plettenberg bay is open to the S. E., but affords safe anchorage in 8 or 10 fathoms water, and forms a good shel- ter during strong N. E. and N. W. gales for vessels intending to make for Table bay. Algoa bay, still further E., is exposed to the prevail- ing winds, but affords good anchorage. Port Elizabeth, the principal port after Cape Town, is situated on this bay. On the Atlantic side, where the mountains approach the ocean, the rivers are few, short, and with little volume of water. The principal ones are the Kowrie (Buffalo), Zwarte Doom (Black Thorn), Olifant (Elephant, a name borne by several others), and Great Berg, which falls into the bay of St. Helena. Of those which, having a general S. course, fall into the-Indian ocean, the principal are the Breede (Broad), Gauritz, Gamtoos, Sun- day, Great Fish, Keiskamma, and Great Kei, which forms the E. boundary of the colony, separating it from Caffraria. None of these rivers are navigable except for short distances by small craft; the largest of them, the Gauritz and the Gamtoos, are moreover obstructed by bars at their mouths. The Gariep or Orange