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CAPE HATTERAS

329

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE

Among birds the secretary-bird, honey-bird and weaver-bird are peculiar. The iguana, cobra, puff-adder and other snakes abound, and the white ant covers the face of the land with its habitations, from two to four feet in height. It is probable that no single country has contributed so largely to the world's conservatories and botanical gardens as the Cape.

Natural Resources. Diamonds have been extensively found in the colony; while in Transvaal, at Johannesburg, not far from Kimberley, are the rich gold fields of the Rand, The Kimberley mine, the richest diamond-mine in the world, covers about twenty-five or thirty acres and has been sunk to a depth of over 600 feet. This mine, with three others, forming a circle of three and one-half miles in diameter, forms what is sometimes called the diamond fields. The finest diamond, the Porter-Rhodes diamond, was found in 1880, and is valued at $300,000. A yellow diamond, 428-^ carats, as large as a hen's egg and said to be then the largest diamond in the world, was found in 1888. The largest yield from these famous diamond mines in any one year was in 1905, the value being over $32,000,000. Gold, copper, coal, iron and salt are found, besides valuable stones, such as garnets, agates and jaspers.

Exports and Industries. The principal exports are gold, diamonds, wine, wool, ostrich Feathers, Angora hair, copper-ore and hides; the chief imports are cloths and dress goods, iron, leather manufactures, machinery, railway supplies and food and drink. More than three quarters of the trade is done with Great Britain and the British possessions. Besides the diamond-mines, the colony has many flour and saw mills, tanneries, breweries, tobacco factories and coach-building works. In 1904 there were 2,527 industrial establishments, employing 30,318 hands, with machinery and plant valued at more than ten million dollars.

Education. Education has not been made compulsory, and of the white population in 1904, twenty-two per cent could not read or write. There are a university and seven colleges in the colony, and 143 public libraries with a total of nearly 500,000 volumes. Private schools, generally under religious auspices, are aided by the government, the amount expended on education in 1904-5 reaching £447,796.

Internal Improvements. Over 3,180 miles of good roads and over 3,300 miles of railroads have been built throughout the colony. Four large bridges span Orange River, and two others cross the Kei and Vaal Rivers. Almost every town is in communication with Cape Town by telegraph, and there are nearly 1,100 postoffiees.

Cities. The chief towns, with the inhabitants as estimated by the 1911 census, are Cape Town, 67,000; Cape Town and its suburbs, 169,641; Kimberly, 34,260; Port Elizabeth, 32,921; Graham's Town, 13,877;

Beaconsfield, 14,000; Paarl, 11,28 King William's Town, 9,500; East London, 24,054; Graff-Reinet, 10,072; Worcester, 8,087; Uitenhafe, 12,199; Cradock, 7,762.

Government and History. The executive is vested in a governor, appointed by the British crown, with a legislative council and a house of assembly. In the Cape parliament speeches may be made both in English and in Dutch. There is a university at Cape Town, but no state-church. The capital is Cape Town; population, with suburbs, 169, 641. In 1652 the Dutch East India Company took possession of the Cape and held it until it was turned over to the English in 1814. Its real growth dates from the British occupation. Since that time the establishment of responsible government in 1872, the emancipation of the slaves in 1838 and the Kafir and Boer wars have been the main events in the history of the colony. Population, 2,698,980, of which 2,028,104 are natives and the remainder whites. Unlike the aborigines of other parts of the world, the natives are constantly increasing. See BOER WAR for late history.

Cape Hat'teras, the most easterly point of North Carolina, separated from the mainland by Pamlico Sound. South of Delaware no land stretches so far into the Atlantic as does Cape Hatteras. Nor is any point on the coast more noted for its frequent and dangerous storms. The Gulf Stream flows within twenty miles of it. There is a lighthouse one and one fourth miles from the outermost point.

Cape Horn, the headland of an island in the Fuegian archipelago, commonly regarded as the southern extremity of America. It is a steep, black rock with bare and lofty sides. It was probably first discovered by Sir Francis Drake, in 1578; but it was first doubled by the Dutch navigators Lemaire and Schouten in 1616, the latter of whom named it after his native town of Hoorn. The cape is no longer rounded by steamers, which now always pass through the Strait of Magellan.

Cape May, a town occupying a point of land of the same name at the southern end of New Jersey at the entrance of Delaware Bay. It is a noted summer resort, the favorite watering-place for Philadelphians. It is connected with Philadelphia by the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia & Reading railroads, and in summer by several lines of steamers. The beach is over five miles long, and affords splendid drives. Population, 2,471.

Cape of Good Hope, a point commonly called the most southerly promontory of Africa, is really a little north of Cape Agul-has. It forms the turning point from south to east on the voyage from Europe to India. The cape is formed by the extremity of Table Mountain, which, as it recedes, rises from a height of 1,000 feet above the sea to 3,582 feet. It was discovered and doubled by Diaz, a Portuguese navigator, as early as