Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-08-26

prepared by the National Geographic So.
ciety Washington, d. ca
n YATAL, one of the provinces Of
N the Union of South Africa,
which the prince of Wales re-
Gently visited, is probably
Great Britain's best hope for a real
cottonproducing region within the en-
pire. A projected railway in the prov
ince VIII open up a quarter of a mil
lion fertile acres of what British ex-
perts consider as good cotton land as
any to be found in America.
Natal is not well known to the out
side world, because it is merged in a
greater whole that attracts all the at.
tenton at a distance. Natal Is now
one of the divisions in Africa's Omitted
States" the Union of South Africa.
But like our own Texas it started out
as a colony of another power and later
had an independent existence of its
own as a republic Settlers from Hol-
land first placed it in the fold of Euro
pean colonies and later organized it as
an Independent country. Great Britain
took it over in 1912 and merged it into
the Union of South Africa when that
federation was formed in 1910.
Natal lies just around Afrlca's cor
ner, only little way beyond the Cape
Of Good Hope, by turning which Vasco
da Cana, in 1897, found the all-impor-
tant water route to the East. Natal
fronts, therefore, on the southern part
Of the Indian ocean. 1t extends rough
ly between south latitude q and 80,
and has a position corresponding, in
the northern hemisphere, to that of
northern Florida and the southern and
central portions of the other Gulf
states.
In area Natal IS some 5000 square
miles greater than South Carolina. AS
in that and other of our South Atlantic
states, the coastal belt is relatively
low and warm with subtrOpical eli
mate. 1t is in this zone that Natal's
potential cotton lands are situated.
There, too, is a considerable sugar
industry and large tea plantations.
The tea industry, however, is losing
ground since the province placed strict
limits on immigra ton from India.
Back about thirty miles from the coast
the midland belt begins. This zone is
higher and cooleE as is the back coun-
try of the American Gulf states, and
constitutes a corn belt" Still farther
from the coast are the Uplands of Ma
tai, where higher altitude and lower
temperature combine to create cOndi-
tons like those of the plains of Texas
and oklahoma. And, as in the uplands
Of those states, stock raising and ce-
real production are the dominant ir-
duStries.
Called the Garden Province.
Although the smallest of the prov
inces Of the Union of South Africa,
Natal is in many ways the most IA
yored, Because Of its agricultural pos
Sibuities, already pretty well devel-
oped, Natal is known as the Garden
province" Its scenery Is mere varied
Than that of any other province; it has
the heaviest population of British ex-
traction; and its native population is
Of much higher type than that Of
She rest Of South Africa, being largely
Iulus.
The chief scenic factor in Natal is
The Drakensberg rampant. This is
loosely called a mountain range In
reality 1t is the seward edge of a
high plateau that stands clifflike over
ne low country about a hundred miles
inland This rampant, in most places
difficult Of access, gives Natal an isO-
at'on that has shown itself in the de-
Eeopment Of a marked individuality
among its people.
AT the Drakeusberg one encounters
scenery that is stupendous. At places
me great cliffs rise almost sheefIy for
Io0O feet. The edge Is scanned with
CANYONS, many of which seem choked
with a tumble OF gigantic powders as
h'g g. houses
The Drakcusberg is not only fea-
tTa e beauty. over its edge streams
gov n mighty leaps, creating poten-
H.. p"vnr th"t will some day be har-