of emigrations to the interior by
the Dutch farmers, dissatisfied with various incidents of British
rule. Into the merits of these differences we have neither space nor
occasion to go.

In 1836, immediately prior to the largest of these movements, known as
the Great Trek, the British Government, by Act, extended its claim
{p.006} of control over all South Africa, south of 25 deg., the latitude
of Delagoa Bay; and the Boer emigrants were warned that in entering
that region they remained under British authority, unless they passed
on into the Portuguese dominion. From this Trek resulted directly, in
the course of years, the two Boer states, the Orange Free State and
the South African Republic (commonly called the Transvaal); and also,
indirectly, the easternmost British colony in South Africa, Natal, in
which the English element is decisively preponderant.

The mention of this migration leads naturally and immediately to a
summary of the physical conditions of the country, by which, as well
as by derivation of blood, the apartness of the two races has been
emphasized. Between the narrow margin of land belonging, as it were,
to the sea, and the high interior plateau, there runs from the extreme
west of the British dominions a chain of lofty mountains, parallel,
roughly, to the coastline, and terminating only when abreast of
Delagoa Bay. These reach an elevation of from six to eight thousand
feet, and in places on the border between {p.007} Natal and
Basutoland heights of eleven thousand are attained. On the side toward
the sea the ascent is comparatively rapid and difficult, though often
broken into precipitous terraces. Inland the descent is less, and more
regular, issuing in a plateau from three to five thousand feet above
the sea, and presenting almost throughout a comparatively level or
undulating surface that offers no serious difficulty to transit.

The territory of the Orange Free State and of the Transvaal lies
wholly within this table-land. In this region, and throughout Africa
south of 25 deg., there are river beds, but no navigable rivers. The
country is generally treeless, and there is a great deficiency of
steady natural water supply. During the rainy season, from October to
March, the naked ground fails to retard the running off of the waters,
which therefore escape rapidly by the rivers, swelling them to
momentary torrents that quickly and fruitlessly subside. During the
long dry season the exposed herbag