The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1900-03-01
SUCH is SOUTH AFRIcA.
Vivid Picture in Miniature of the Low.
er Part Of the Dark Continent.

eF Fdrt OF kTe LidTk NOnIlnenL.
You land in South Africa at the foot
OF mountain, 5000 feet high. They cali
It label Mountain, and the veil of mi I
that, excepting on very clear days
overhangs 1t. South Africans a.e
pleased to term the "Tablecloth." Pc
senting a front OF solid rock. 1000 feet
in height, perpendicular as a wall and
for half n mile on top level, this noun
tain offers the best natural signboarl
on earth. Time and again have British
firms attempted with fabulous sums TO
secure 1t for advertising purposes, but,
as yet, there has been no such deface-
ment.
Table Mountain marks the tip end
OF the Dark Continent. Below II nestlas
the city of Cape Town, beautiful bay
stretching out in the foreground. on
the West the mountain breaks off alb
ruptly, and the railroad skirts about
1t to the interior. on the east Il slopes
off into a hilly, picturesque formation
known as the Lions Back" and then
gradually rises into the Drakensburg
Mountains. This Is the only great
mountain range south of the Fam, e II.
and by noting it's location one may
understand in a trlce just what South
Africa is geographically. Steaming
along the east coast from Cape Colony
northward, you have the Drakenburg
in view nearly all the way to Beira, n
distance of 1000 miles. In Cape Colony
and Natal the mountains in many
places dip the waters edge, and with
field glass one may see on their era IS
and peaks smoke curling up from the
native villages. In Portuguese territory
the mountains recede slightly from the
coast, and at Delagoa Bay there is an
intervening stretch of lowland twenty
miles wide. At Beira this has increased
to sixty miles. At the Zambesi the
Drakensburg ends.
To get into the interior of South Afri-
ca from any of the five east coast land
ing places-Port Elizabeth, East Lon
don, Durham. Delagoa Bay and Beirl-
one must cross a short extent of low
land and then ascend steep mountain.
Having arrived there, the traveller Is
conscious of little or no descent five
siXths of the whole interior being q
vast plateau that extends to the Fam
besi on the north. the Atlantic ocean on
the west and varies in altitude from
5000 to 5000 above the sea.
A fringe of tropical country. whore
bloom the magnolia and the rose, where
flourish the orange, pineapple, lemon,
guavo, grape, banana, the cotton and
the tea plant; long stretch of noun
tains running parallel with the indian
Ocean, the highest peaks of which are
capped with snow, and in whose val eys
wave tracts of wheat and corn; a va I
prairies, dotted here and there with
patches of scrub woodland. mission
stations. and immense farms with mil
lions OF sheep and cattle grazing there
on; a few thousand hamlets scattered
like oases over great landscape, male
black by the native Africans who live
in matched huts, and wear but a
breech clout; a dozen large towrs
where is heard the clang of the Amer
lean trolley car and the clatter of the
police patrol. and about which men
cluster as flies gather to jar of
sweets; the remnants of a once mighty
geological garden, including many leop-
ards, beautiful and 1.-the balloons. an
telope, jackals and crocodiles, a less
number of hippopotami and a few
herds of buffalo, elephants and giraffe9,
some iron ore. some coal. some copper.
and little silver; forty miles of gold
and 100 acres Of diamonds. That is
South Africa.-Ainslie's Magazine.