Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/270

 which flows through the Makalaka territory to the north of Transvaal, and which through the Shasha reaches the Limpopo above its great bend towards the southeast. Four years afterwards Button reported the existence of another auriferous district within the limits of the republic itself, near Eersteling, among the Devonian hills of Makapana, situated about 120 miles to the north-east of Pretoria. In 1873 further discoveries were made in the Lydenburg uplands, which form the northern termination of the Drakenberg border range, Again in 1885 rich deposits were brought to light in the eastern terraces intersected by the affluents of the Manissa, and within the Swazi territory. Lastly, these discoveries

were soon followed by other even more extensive finds in the Johannesberg district, on the Witwaters-rand uplands between Pretoria and Potchefstroom. The mines at present most actively worked are situated in this district and about Barberton, north of Swaziland, where the De Kaap deposits have recently attracted a large mining population.

Altogether it may be confidently asserted that gold exists in enormous quantities in the whole of this region, where "fresh fields are being almost daily opened up, not only in the Boer republic, but in the native districts lying east, west, and north of it." At a meeting of the Society of Arts in March, 1888,