200 SOUTH AFRICA. 



imported loaded with all the charges of lengthy 

 transport. Other things being equal, the mining 

 camps within the Company's territory will reap the 

 benefit of a local supply of the necessaries of life 

 equal to any demand likely to occur, and when 

 the Beira Railway is completed machinery and 

 other imported goods will in all probability be 

 delivered at the townships or camps at moderate 

 cost, and without the ruinous delays incidental to 

 waggon transport 



To obtrude my personal impressions in the form 

 of opinions on the special value of the auriferous 

 areas within Rhodesia would be an act of 

 inexcusable rashness, as when I travelled in these 

 parts my objects were simply those of the ordinary 

 nomadic sportsman, and I was then, as now, quite 

 innocent of any practical knowledge bearing on 

 mineralogical subjects. However, I was impressed 

 as early as 1853 with a floating idea that the 

 greater part of what is now the Chartered Com- 

 pany's territory was more or less auriferous, and, 

 indeed, obtained from the natives several vulture 

 quills full of " gim " more or less rounded grains 

 of gold, evidently the produce of what I believe 

 Cornish miners call streaming. The specimens 



