upon the flank of
the lines of communication.

To these two extremes, or flanks, of the Boer frontier, correspond on
the British side the ports of Cape Town and Durban, which may be said
to mark the western and eastern limits of the field of military
operations in the war. They are the chief seaports on the South
African coast, which by nature is singularly deficient in good and
safe anchorages. The advantages of these two, artificially improved,
and combined with the relatively open and productive region
immediately behind them, have made them the starting-points of the
principal railroad lines by which, through the sea, the interior is
linked to the outer world.

The general direction of these roads is determined, as always, by the
principal objects of traffic or other interests. Thus the line from
Cape Town, ascending by a winding course through the mountains in the
rear, pushes its way north to Kimberley, where are the great diamond
fields, and thence on, by way of Mafeking, to the territory of the
British South African Company--now known as {p.011} Rhodesia. This
lies north of the Transvaal, and, like it, is separated from the sea
by the Portuguese dominion, having, however, by treaty a right of
military way through the latter by the port of Beira; of which right
use is now being made.

In the northern part of its course, which at present ends at Buluwayo,
this road is as yet rather political than economical in its
importance, joining the British entrance at the sea to the as yet
little developed regions of the distant interior. At a point called De
Aar Junction, five hundred miles from Cape Town, a principal branch is
thrown off to the eastward to Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange
Free State, whence it continues on to Johannesburg, the great
industrial centre of the Gold Fields, and to Pretoria, the capital of
the Transvaal. A glance along this stretch of road will show that
between De Aar and Bloemfontein it receives three tributary routes
from three different points of the sea-coast--Port Elizabeth, Port
Alfred, and East London--the whole system concentrating some sixty
miles before Bloemfontein, at Springfontein, which thus becomes a
{p.012} central depot fed by four convergent, but, in their origin,
independent streams of supply; an administrative condition always
conducive to security and to convenience. This instance also
illustrates the capital importance--especially in a military point of
view-