2o6 Mex, Mines, and Animals in South Africa. 



mile to tlie eastward are the fort and surrounding 

 liuts, and again, half a mile further on, we find the 

 civil lines, where reside Dr. Jamieson, the civil 

 administrator, and the other officials of the Com- 

 pany. Here I outspanned, and was very kindly 

 accommodated with a hut by Sir John Willoughby. 

 In this climate these huts give excellent shelter. 

 Round, about sixteen feet in diameter, with 

 sharply-pitched conical roofs, built of poles and 

 mud, and thatched with grass, they are Avarm at 

 nio'ht and wondrously cool in the heat of the day. 

 They can be erected by the natives in a week at a 

 cost of from lOL to 12/. Quite an imposing 

 number of these huts, among Avhich are inter- 

 spersed waggons, carts, tents, shanties of every 

 conceivable description, compose the settlement of 

 Fort Salisbury, where resided from 500 to 800 

 persons. The place had a thriving, rising, healthy 

 appearance. The settlers, hard at work, occupied 

 with one business or another from dawn to dusk, 

 wore an expression of contentment and of confi- 

 dence. A small river flowing through the plain, 

 not a mile distant from any part of the settlement, 

 yields an abundant supply of water. The soil is 

 dry and stony, all moisture either quickly drying 

 up or running quickly off ; the altitude is 40 ft. 

 short of 5000 ft. above the level of the sea, the air 

 fresh and bracing, and these conditions will 

 probably guarantee the good sanitary state of the 

 township and its people, even during the summer 

 and rainy seasons. In the distance surrounding 

 the plain, from which here and there project rocky 



