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mantic beauty of localities which bear upon them the impress of man's mind. But it is something to look around one, and feel that here at least the soil is maiden, the hills owe nothing to any agency but the great internal forces within the earth's centre, the brooks run their natural courses, neither dammed nor diverted by the hand of man, and in fact that to all intents and purposes, the characteristics and conformation of the country are just those which it possessed when it came fresh and smiling from nature's crucible.

To return to my narrative. Further on round False Bay, we came upon Kalk Bay. It is really wonderful why Cape holiday-makers should select this place as a sea-side resort. The whole atmosphere is tainted odoriferously. The smell of snook and sun fish, undergoing a salting process, in innumerable tubs, poisons the air. Here is the centre of the great fish trade of South Africa. The curse to the colony I was told. And wherefore? I asked. Because, it was explained to me, the Malays finding that they could live solely on the bountiful gifts of the briny deep, were not constrained to work in any of the more important industries of the colony. This piece of Africander rhodomantade I shall deal with further in due season. Leaving the happy hunting grounds of the Malays, our driver jars our nerves, (already fairly unstrung by being forced to listen to the constant gibberish of the old Dutch women), by making a sudden and abrupt descent from the road on to the sand again. He drove towards the sea in so impetuous a fashion, that really at one time I began to fear that he had become possessed of the evil spirit, which troubled the swine in the Scriptures. He seemed to be propelling our unhappy vehicle into the ocean, but he pulled up in time to avoid a catastrophe, and we drove along on the borders of the surf, the wheels on the near side being half under the water. As we proceeded along the sea marge, I became aware that in some places the water at high tide covers the sand; in those exposed spots rough causeways had been thrown up. Simon's Town reached, and my first foretaste of waggon travelling accomplished, we repaired to the British Hotel, where I had ample time to reflect upon all I had seen. I cannot say,

that upon due reflection, I was enamoured of the typical means of transit in Africa, namely, waggon travelling. At the table d'hôte at the hotel, we were amused by listening to a series of droll anecdotes, related by Matthews the conjuror. I subsequently met him at a clever entertainment, given by him at the house of the Dean, himself no mean proficient in the arts of legerdemain. The next morning we were delighted with a view of the bay with all its glories, in which the magnificent South African fleet was anchored. We took a long walk along the coast, and were greatly pleased with its spacious beauty, but as to Simon's Town itself, it is remarkable for nothing, unless it be for hotels, canteens, and winkles, all objects dear to the heart of the sailor. I might, however, in enumerating the leading features of the place, have mentioned the commodore's house and a very pretty cemetery.

Passing from the old colony to Natal I may remark that a little fishing is done in Durban, where the coolies have the industry such as it is, entirely in their hands, and prosecute it indolently from some scattered islands in the bay, on which a few Indian families are located. They are "fishy customers," these fishing coolies, and it is well for the Durbanites that they are thus isolated.

The salt works of Natal are interesting, but the ménage is supremely simple. On the flat districts near the Umgeni, brakish water makes its appearance periodically. By means of mounds which form an entrenched square, this water is retained, and prevented from running into the sea again. A trench running parallel with this enclosed square receives the briny fluid, when evaporation caused by solar rays has reduced it to a sedimentary condition. This thick liquid is collected and boiled, the salt being precipitated, has but to dry, and is then in a condition fit to bring to table. In conclusion, let me say how much I, in common with all Africa's well-wishers, regret that the Cape was not represented at the International Fisheries Exhibition. This was a piece of apathetic neglect to be ever deplored.

In several of the foregoing chapters I have tried to deal with most of the leading industries of South Africa, and to throw some light upon the mysteries in which they are involved. I hope that my efforts have not been altogether without success. I wish now to

say a few words on the neglected or partially neglected openings for profitable trade or successful enterprise in the African colonies. At present, as far as retail businesses are concerned, I think I may say that canteen and hotel keeping are, so much the worse for South Africa, the most profitable of all pursuits. Large profits are made, and a great many persons are engaged in dispensing spirituous and vinous fluids in the colonies.

Small capitalists will find that shops and stores offer very fair openings for intelligent industry. Many keepers of insignificantlooking general shops, in outlying villages, realise little fortunes in a comparatively short space of time. People flock in from far and near, and they do not mind paying excessive prices for luxuries which they can seldom obtain.

Mr. Glanville dealt very severely with Major Butler at the Society of Arts some time since. The former gentleman had said that the resources of the country were simply wool, ostrich feathers, diamonds, gold, wine, Cape carts, and waggons. Not such a bad category either. I hope to have already proved, notwithstanding, that Major Butler's contention does not hold good.

A truly remarkable state of things obtains in this country. Despite its countless dairy farms, it is as yet under the necessity of importing the greater portion of the milk in ordinary use from Norway and Switzerland, in the form of the familiar tins of condensed abomination. The colonists rely upon Europe in a large measure for their cheese supply also. This seemingly inexplicable anomaly, as likewise the fact that South Africans are unable to meet, at home, the demand for the merest necessaries of life, is to be explained, when we remember that in this large and sparsely populated country, transport difficulties make it impossible to diffuse the products of the farming and agricultural districts, in a sufficiently advantageous or economical manner, to ensure remunerative results.

In a recent copy of the Cape Argus an article appeared upon the Paarl Agricultural Show. It called attention to the wealth which flows into France from little things, vegetables, fruit, and dairy produce, and remarked that the colonial farmers, like, alas, our English agriculturists, were too much inclined to despise these sources of prosperity. The following excerpt from this leader may not be out of place :

"It is now incumbent upon Stellenbosch to show the colony, by the exhibits at the forthcoming Show, that the disease through which the Paarl is passing is a purely local affection, by no means significant of any general debility. We are told on all hands that what the colony requires, in order to give it a dead lift from the

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depression under which it suffers, is an increase of agricultural production. If the Paarl Show is a genuine answer to that cry, we are in a very bad way indeed. As usual, there were some creditable imported articles, and there was machinery to gather the products of the earth, but very little of the products to be gathered. There were good cattle, but scarcely any butter, and no cheese. The show of vegetables was simply deplorable, potatoes being represented by one bag, and onions by two."

It occurs to me just now to mention that there is a wide difference between our retail shops in England and the stores of the colonies. Of course there are many small general shops, but on the whole large stores are more the order of the day. Nearly everything is imported into Africa, and some of the importers are at the same time merchants and salesmen, or storekeepers. In these cases, their stores as a rule are not unlike in their general scope our co-operative stores at home. But most of the storekeepers rely upon the merchants to import their goods, from whom they purchase, and in these instances, they commonly sell but one kind of goods; drapery, grocery, ironmongery, as the case may be. The former and larger storekeepers, who have no middle men in the shape of merchants to employ, accumulate large fortunes. It is said they often secure a profit equivalent to cent. per cent. upon everything they sell. The merchants achieve great success also, and would get a greater pull than the most favoured storekeeper, if it were not for the unhappy fact that financial crises and numerous bad debts, especially with small upcountry clients, act as weights to pull them down from time to time. The storekeeper is by no means a counterpart of our English shopkeeper, at all events in his own estimation; but even in Africa nice and really arbitrary and somewhat ludicrous distinctions are drawn, between this storekeeper and that storekeeper. Still this particular prejudice against "shop," is by no means so dependent on considerations (such as wealth and place of residence) apart from the true worth, breed, and natural status of the man and of his family, as it is in this country. The storekeepers and merchants in the colonies are the men who make the largest fortunes.