Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/53

Rh  1em  CAPE COAST CASTLE, or, a town of Western Africa, the capital of the British settlements on the Gold Coast, is situated in Upper Guinea, about 70 miles to the W. of Acra, iu 5 5 24&quot; N. lat. and 1 13 38&quot; W. long. It occupies a low bank of gneiss and micaceous slate, which runs out into the sea and protects the harbour from the violence of the surf. Besides the principal for tress there are two outposts, Fort Victoria on the west and Fort William on the east. With the exception of the European residences and the houses of the wealthier natives, which are built of brick, the whole of the town is composed of &quot; swish&quot; or mud huts, thatched with rushes, and having the walls white-washed. The population con sists mainly of negroes of the Fanti tribe, but there are also a number of mulattoes and a colony of Kroomen. The earliest European settlement on the spot was that of the Portuguese in 1610. In 1652 the Swedes erected the fort of Karlsborg which was captured by the Danes in 1658, by the Dutch in 1659, and by the English in 1664. Since the last date the post has remained in English possession, in spite of the French attack in 1757 and various assaults by the native tribes. In 1827 the public establishments were withdrawn, and the forts were handed over to the mercantile companies; but in 1844 the Government re sumed its possession. The population is estimated at about 10,000.         APE COLONY is a large tract of country which forms the most southern part of the continent of Africa, a colony of Great Britain since 1806, named from the Cape of Good Hope, a small promontory on its south-west coast, from the neighbourhood of which the Dutcn settlers of 1652 spread out over the land. It lies for the most part between 28 and 34 50 S. lat., and 16 30 and 29 50 E. long. West and south are the Atlantic and Limits. Indian Oceans ; the Orange River forms the boundary of the colony proper on the north, separating it from Great Namaqua Land, the Kalahari desert, and the Orange River Free State ; eastward its limit runs from the Tees River, a headstream of the Orange, along the Storm Berg and down the Kei River from its most easterly source-stream to its mouth, which line separates the colony from Free Kaffre Land, and includes within it the divisions of British Kaffraria added to the colony in 1865. Besides this chief area the colony includes various recently added irregular provinces ; these are the agency of Basulo Land, annexed in 1871, consisting of the high valleys of the source-streams of the Orange River, sloping down inward from the Drakenberg mountains, which separate this territory from the colony of Natal ; Herschei, a native district immediately south of Basuto Land ; the magistracy of Nomansland, including Griqua Land East, a native territory of northern Kaffraria on the seaward slope of the Drakenberg south-west of Natal ; St John s Territory, or the upper basin of the St John s or Umzimvubo River on the slopes of the Drakenberg in central Kaffraria ; Fmgo Land and the Idntywa Reserve, or the Transkeian territories of southern Kaffraria, bounded by the Bashee River ; and Tambookie Land, between the Bashee and the Umtata. These latter districts were incorporated with the colony in 1875. It is certain that in a few years the whole of what is now Free Kaffre Land will become British territory, when the Cape Colony will be conterminous throughout with Natal on the north-east ; and preliminary steps have already been taken for the extension of the western boundary of the colony to include the immense but thinly inhabited region of Great Namaqua Land, which stretches north of the lower Orange River to Walfisch Bay in 23 S. The lieutenant-governorship of Griqua Land West, better known as the district of the South African diamond fields, which lies north of the Orange River and west of the Free State, annexed to the British empire in 1871, is strictly a separate dependency of the Crown, but is so intimately connected with the Cape Colony as to be neces sarily described along with it. The extreme breadth of the colony from north to south is about 500 miles, and its length from east to west about 800, its area comprising 230,000 square miles.

The country rises from the sea by a series of terraces, of which the supporting walls are nearly parallel chains of rugged mountains, intersected by deep ravines, rising to a central and highest range, which divides the drainage of the coastal streams from that of the inner tributaries of the Orange River in the north. This central range follows a curve almost identical with that of the coast, at a general distance of about 100 miles from the ocean; from the i borders of Natal westward it is known in different portions as the Kahlamba or Drakenberg, the Storm Berg, Zuur Berg, Sneeuw Berg, Winter Berg, Nieuweveld, and Roggeveld. In height its summits appear to average nearly 6000 feet, the highest points being Cathkiu peak, 10,300 feet, in the extreme north-east corner of the colony; Compass Berg, in the Sneeuw Berg, 8300 feet ; and Bulb- houders Bank, in the Nieuweveld Range, which is 7300 feet above the sea. North of this dividing range the inner country slopes gradually to the Orange River, central Bushmanland being a plateau of from 3000 to 4000 feet above the sea. The numerous outer ranges, which form the margins of the terraces that fall towards the ocean, are separated from the central range throughout the greater part of the colony by the arid plateau known as the Great Karroo, nearly 300 miles in length and 60 miles in width north to south, and at an elevation of about 3000 feet above the sea ; their general direction is always that of the coast, and they are cut across at intervals by rugged gorges or &quot; kloofs &quot; through which the periodical torrents of the coastal watershed escape to the sea. Two chief ranges may be distinguished, an inner and an outer, the former having the names of Zwarte Berg, Witte Berg, and Cedar Berg, along a great part of its length, the latter being most prominent in the Outeniqua, Zon- dereinde, Drakenstein, and Olifant Bergen, rising from the south and west coasts. Some points of the inner coast range exceed 7000 feet in altitude, and the outer line appears to average about 4000 feet. In Namaqua Land, in the north-west of the colony, the central and outer ranges, approaching one another and decreasing consider- 