Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/17

 Rh in building and commerce. In spite of the fact that the population of the whole colony is less than 600,000 whites, trading was started after the war on a scale which a white population of twenty millions would hardly have justified. As might be expected in a town of nearly 80,000 inhabitants, Cape Town has the conveniences of a modern city, a fine town hall just finished at a cost of a million and a quarter dollars, a good and plentiful water supply, electric light, extended railway and trolley car lines, and a perfect sewerage and drainage system. It is not possible for me to warn intending tourists of the troubles caused by quarantine, customs declarations, passports or baggage transport, for all these formalities were dispensed with: we had only to walk ashore in company with our hosts who had come on board the ship to meet us. The first half of the presidential address was delivered by Professor Darwin on the evening of arrival, and the following three mornings were devoted to the sectional meetings. The five days in Cape Town were spent by the different members of the party in different ways, according to their consciences or inclinations. The afternoons were generally free for excursions, and the evenings were fully occupied by receptions or lectures, well attended by both visitors and residents. Many of the geologists were attracted by the opportunity to see the country with their own eyes and obtain data for the discussion of those problems which appear to be peculiar to South Africa. The astronomers were particularly active both in Section A and in afternoon and evening visits to the observatory, the history of which furnishes remarkable examples of devotion to science; under the present director it has not only been equipped with some of the finest and most modern instruments, but has sent forth many valuable contributions towards our knowledge of the heavens. Groote Schuur, the residence of Cecil Rhodes and bequeathed to the colony at his death, was a center of interest as the home of the man 'who thought in terms, not of countries, but of continents,' and nearly every one visited the beautiful house and extensive estate with its large collection of African animals. On the last day some hundred and fifty of the party, guided by members of the Cape Mountain Club and others, climbed up various routes on to Table Mountain and sat down to a lunch provided by the mayor near the new reservoirs which supply the city with water. There were excursions also to various features of interest in the town and its neighborhood, to the De Beers Explosive Works, to the Government Wine Farm at Groot Constantia, to the Admiralty Works at Simonstown, and to the Elsenburg Government School of Agriculture at Stellenbosch.

The southeast coast railway to Durban is as yet incomplete and, to avoid the long railway journey viá Johannesburg, the members left