COLONIZATION OF INTERIOR DISTRICTS. m 



highly probable that the basin shape prevails over large tracts of 

 the country ; and as the strata on the slopes, where most of the rain 

 falls, dip in toward the centre, they probably guide water beneath 

 the plains but ill supplied with moisture from the clouds. The 

 phenomenon of stagnant fountains becoming by a new and deeper 

 outlet never-failing streams may be confirmatory of the view that 

 water is conveyed from the sides of the country into the bottom 

 of the central valley ; and it is not beyond the bounds of possibil- 

 ity that the wonderful river system in the north, which, if native 

 information be correct, causes a considerable increase of water in 

 the springs called Matlomagan-yana (the Links), extends its fer- 

 tilizing influence beneath the plains of the Kalahari. 



The peculiar formation of the country may explain why there 

 is such a difference in the vegetation between the 20th and 30th 

 parallels of latitude in South Africa and the same latitudes in Cen- 

 tral Australia. The want of vegetation is as true of some parts 

 too in the centre of South America as of Australia ; and the cause 

 of the difference holds out a probability for the success of artesian 

 wells in extensive tracts of Africa now unpeopled solely on ac- 

 count of the want of surface water. We may be allowed to spec- 

 ulate a little at least on the fact of much greater vegetation, which, 

 from whatever source it comes, presents for South Africa prospects 

 of future greatness which we can not hope for in Central Australia. 

 As the interior districts of the Cape Colony are daily becoming of 

 higher value, offering to honest industry a fair remuneration for 

 capital, and having a climate unequaled in salubrity for consump- 

 tive patients, I should unhesitatingly recommend any farmer at 

 all afraid of that complaint in his family to try this colony. With 

 the means of education already possessed, and the onward and up- 

 ward movement of the Cape population, he need entertain no ap- 

 prehensions of his family sinking into barbarism. 



The route we at this time followed ran along the middle, or 

 skirted the western zone before alluded to, until we reached the 

 latitude of Lake Ngami, where a totally different country begins. 

 While in the colony, we passed through districts inhabited by the 

 descendants of Dutch and French refugees who had fled from re- 

 ligious persecution. Those living near the capital differ but little 

 from the middle classes in English counties, and are distinguished 

 by public spirit and general intelligence ; while those situated far 



