United States territory the excellent harbor of San Diego. The mere
nicks in the rim of Southwest Africa constituting Walfish Bay and Angra
Pequena assume considerable value as trading stations and places of
refuge along that 1,200-mile reach of inhospitable coast extending from
Cape Town north to Great Fish Bay.[455] It is worthy of notice in passing
that, though both of these small inlets lie within the territory of
German Southwest Africa, Walfish Bay with 20 miles of coast on either
side is a British possession, and that two tiny islets which commands
the entrance to the harbor of Angra Pequena, also belong to Great
Britain. On the uniform coast of East Africa, the single considerable
indentation formed by Delagoa Bay assumes immense importance, which,
however, is due in part to the mineral wealth of its Transvaal
hinterland. From this point northward for 35 degrees of latitude, a
river mouth, like that fixing the site of Beira, or an inshore islet
affording protected harborage, like that of Mombasa, serves as the
single ocean gateway of a vast territory, and forms the terminus of a
railroad--proof of its importance.

[Sidenote: Evolution of ports.]

The maritime evolution of all amply embayed coasts, except in Arctic and
sub-Arctic regions inimical to all historical development, shows in its
highest stage the gradual elimination of minor ports, and the
concentration of maritime activity in a few favored ones, which have the
deepest and most capacious harbors and the best river, canal, or
railroad connection with the interior. The earlier stages are marked by
a multiplicity of ports, showing in general activity nearly similar in
amount and in kind. England's merchant marine in the fourteenth century
was distributed in a large group of small but important ports on the
southern coast, all which, owing to their favorable location, were
engaged in the French and Flemish trade; and in another group on the
east coast, reaching from Hull to Colchester, which participated in the
Flemish, Norwegian, and Baltic trade.[456] Most of these have now
declined before the overpowering competition of a few such seaboard
marts as London, Hull, and Southampton. The introduction of steam
trawlers into the fishing fleets has in like manner led to the
concentration of the fishermen in a few large ports with good railroad
facilities, such as Aberdeen and Grimsby, while the fishing villages
that fringed the whole eastern and southern coas