richer, and in the valleys there is plenty of land fit for tillage
without irrigation.

THE COLONY OF NATAL

Much smaller, but more favoured by nature, is the British colony of
Natal, which adjoins the easternmost part of Cape Colony, and now
includes the territories of Zululand and Tonga land. Natal proper and
Zululand resemble in their physical conditions the south-eastern corner
of Cape Colony. Both lie entirely on the sea slope of the Quathlamba
Range, and are covered by mountains and hills descending from that
range. Both are hilly or undulating, with a charming variety of surface;
and they are also comparatively well watered, with a perennial stream in
every valley. Hence there is plenty of grass, and towards the coast
plenty of wood also, while the loftier interior is bare. The climate is
much warmer than that of Cape Colony, and in the narrow strip which
borders the sea becomes almost tropical. Nor is this heat attributable
entirely to the latitude. It is largely due to the great Mozambique
current, which brings down from the tropical parts of the Indian Ocean a
vast body of warm water which heats the adjoining coast just as the Gulf
Stream heats the shores of Georgia and the Carolinas; and the effect of
this mass of hot water upon the air over it would doubtless be felt much
more in Natal were it not for the rapid rise of the ground from the sea
in that colony. Pietermaritzburg, the capital, is only some fifty miles
from the coast as the crow flies. But though it lies in a valley, it is
2225 feet above sea-level, and from it the country steadily rises
inland, till at Laing's Nek (the watershed between the Indian Ocean and
the Atlantic), the height of 5300 feet is reached, and the winter cold
is severe. Nearly the whole of Natal and four-fifths of Zululand may
thus be deemed a temperate country, where Europeans can thrive and
multiply. So far as soil goes it is one of the richest as well as one of
the fairest parts of South Africa. Tongaland, a smaller district, lies
lower and is less healthy.

GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

Very different is the vast German territory (322,000 square miles) which
stretches northward from Cape Colony, bounded on the south by the Orange
River, on the north by the West African territories of Portugal, on the
east by Bechuanaland. Great Namaqualand and Damaraland constitute an
enormous wilderness, very thinly peopled, because the means of life are
very scanty. This wilderness is