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Page 20
I regretted that time did not permit of my visiting the celebrated
Ostrich Farm of Mr. Arthur Douglass, at Heatherton Towers, about fifteen
miles from Grahamstown. Mr. Douglass has the largest and most successful
Ostrich Farm in the Colony, in addition to which he is the patentee of
an egg hatching machine, or incubator, which is very much used in
various parts of South Africa. The export of feathers has increased
rapidly, and has become one of the chief exports of the Colony, as
whilst in 1868 the quantity exported was valued at �70,000, in 1887 it
had reached the value of �365,587. This is by no means the largest
amount appearing under the head of exports during recent years, as in
1882 the value of feathers exported was �1,093,989. It is estimated that
during the past half-century the total weight of the feathers exported
has been more than one thousand tons. The Cape Colony has, in fact, had
a monopoly of the ostrich industry, but in 1884 several shipments of
ostriches took place to South Australia, the Argentine Republic, and to
California, and the Government of the Cape Colony, being alarmed, that
the Colony was in danger of losing its lucrative monopoly, imposed an
export tax of �100 on each ostrich, and �5 on each ostrich egg
exported.
[Illustration: Decorative]
PORT ELIZABETH TO CAPE TOWN.
On my return to Port Elizabeth, I spent another day or two there, and
left on the evening of Monday, the 26th of August, by railway for Cape
Town. This long journey of between eight hundred and nine hundred miles
occupies nearly two days and two nights. It was the last I took in South
Africa. The country, generally speaking, is very much of the same kind
as that northward, over the Karoo, and in the southern part of the
Transvaal. High land,--in the neighbourhood of Nieupoort 5,050 feet
above the sea level,--flat, bare, and treeless. It is certainly a very
desolate-looking country to travel over in winter. Nearing Cape Town,
however, I ought not to omit to mention the Hex River Pass. The scenery
here is certainly very grand, and is some of the best of its kind I have
seen in South Africa. The railway, which winds through it by a
succession of zigzags from a great height, is another of the many
triumphs of engineering skill which are to be found in all parts of the
world. The fine views of the Pass, when I traversed it, were heightened
by the tops of the mountains being tinged with a wreath of snow. From
Hex River the route to Cape Town lay through a rich and fertile valley,
conveying ample proofs of the agricultural value and resources of this
part of the Cape Colony. I arrived at Cape Town in the afternoon of the
following Wednesday. Here I spent another pleasant week, seeing various
friends.
[Illustration: HEX RIVER PASS.]
One of the last duties which devolved upon me before leaving South
Africa--at the urgent invitation of some of my friends--was to deliver
an address at Cape Town on Imperial Federation. This I did at the hall
of the Young Men's Christian Society, to a large and attentive
audience.[C]
On the 4th of September I left Cape Town in the s.s. _Athenian_; and,
after a pleasant and rapid voyage of eighteen days, touching only at
Madeira on the way, I landed safely at Southampton on Sunday the 22nd.
I have now given an account of the prominent features of my tour, during
which, in the course of five months, I travelled about twelve thousand
miles by sea, and four thousand by land.
I proceed to touch as briefly as I can, on a few of the public
questions, and other matters of interest which have arrested my
attention while I was in South Africa.
[Footnote C: See Appendix.]
[Illustration: Decorative]
CLIMATE.
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