Page:The National geographic magazine, volume 1.djvu/165

 companies, having a capital of $18,500,000, one-third of which is paid up. Barberstown, the chief mining-town, has two exchanges, a theatre, two music-halls, canteens innumerable, several churches and hotels, four banks, and a hospital. A railroad was opened in December, 1887, from the Indian Ocean towards these mines, 52 miles, and is being rapidly constructed 100 miles farther to Barberstown.

There is reason to believe that gold deposits equal to those of Mexico or California will yet be found in several parts of Africa. Copper is known to exist in the Orange Free State, in parts of Central and South Africa, and in the district of Katongo, southwest of Lake Tanganyika, which Dr. Livingstone was about to explore in his last journey. Rich copper ores are also found in the Cape of Good Hope, Abyssinia, and equatorial Africa. Large and excellent deposits of iron ore have been found in the Transvaal and in Algiers, and a railroad 20 miles long has been built to carry it from the Algerian mines to the sea. Very many tribes in equatorial and Central Africa work both iron and copper ores into different shapes and uses, showing that the ore-beds must be widely distributed.

One of the few large diamond-fields of the world is found in Griqua and Cape Colony, at the plateau of Kimberly, 3,000 feet above the sea. The dry diggings have been very productive; this tract, when first discovered, being almost literally sown with diamonds.

Coal has been found in Zulu-Land, on Lake Nyassa, and in Abyssinia. The latter coal-field is believed to be secondary. Iron, lead, zinc, and other minerals, have been found in the Orange Free State. Salt-beds, salt-fields, salt-lakes, and salt-mines are found in different parts of Africa.

The peculiar formation of Africa, its long inland navigation, interrupted by the falls near the mouths of its large rivers, from connection with the ocean, render it necessary to connect the ocean with the navigable parts of the rivers by railroads.

The Belgians will soon construct a railroad on the southerly side of the Kongo, to the inland navigable waters of the Kongo at Leopoldville, following the preliminary surveys lately completed; the French may also construct a road from the coast to