on the south it is bounded by the Cape Flats. It is needless to say that this naturally most dangerous and exposed anchorage has been converted into one of the safest and most convenient ports in the world. Following the coast on the west side of the Cape Peninsula, Hout or Woody Bay will be seen, formerly an anchorage of some importance, having been occupied and fortified by the Dutch, who have left behind them old forts and old cannon. When Cape Point is doubled, the large and spacious waters of False Bay come into view, sheltered from the north-west gales of winter, but exposed to the south-east. On the western side of False Bay, in a sheltered nook, is Simon's Bay, Her Majesty's only naval station in South Africa, and a post of great importance, called, not unreasonably, the Gibraltar of the Southern Seas. If the Suez Canal were blocked in time of war, it has been pointed out that the whole trade of the East from India, Australia, and perhaps China, Japan. and the Straits Settlements, would be driven round the Cape. The old route would thus be restored, but the value of merchandise on the seas exceeds many fold that which it was before. At the present time it is calculated at an annual value of 1000 millions. The duties of Imperial defence at the Cape of Good Hope would then be extremely heavy against a hostile naval force.

(14) Within False Bay, a bay distinguished for its broad curve and sandy beach, extending for miles from west to east, there are Kalk Bay, a fishing cove a few miles from Simon's Bay, and Gordon Bay, on the eastern side. This bay is much used as a summer and seaside resort by Capetown residents. Between Cape Hangklip (hanging rock) and Danger Point, the scene of the shipwreck of the ‘Birkenhead,' are the two small openings of Sandown Bay and Walker Bay. Close by is Port Durban. Beyond Cape l'Agulhas is Struis or Ostrich Bay, and St.

Sebastian Bay. Behind Cape St. Blaize is Mossel Bay, considered the safest anchorage in the Colony after Saldanha and Simon's Bay. To the east of Walker Point is Knysna Harbour, a land-locked estuary, into which a passage lies between bold rocks. The tide enters through a narrow passage, about 160 yards wide, and spreads out over a large expanse of flats, giving a channel of not more than twelve feet, so that only small vessels can enter. This is by far the most beautiful and picturesque harbour in the Cape Colony. The country between Cape Seal and Cape St. Francis is covered with the noble woods and forests of the Zitzikamma, and Plettenberg Bay is the most convenient place along this tract for shipping timber. The proximity of the mountains to the sea, and the prevailing winds, cause thick fogs and mists along this part of the coast, which is considered extremely dangerous. Here a current from the sea frequently sets dead on the shore. At Cape St. Francis the mountain range dies away, and at the mouth of the Kromme River is a decent anchorage.

(15) Cape Recife, the next promontory to the east, forms the western arm of Algoa Bay, and is a low rocky point with reefs running out far into the sea. Algoa Bay itself is a broad open bay, exposed to the fury of the south-east gales, against which the islands of St. Croix and the Bird Islands offer some shelter. The inhabitants of Port Elizabeth have spent vast sums in trying to create a harbour, as the trade there is very great, and the harbour nearer to the great markets of the interior than Table Bay. But hitherto their efforts have been a failure. From Cape Recife, lat. 34°, long. 25° 36′ E., the African coast trends very rapidly towards the northeast, past Cape Padrone and Port Alfred at the Kowie Mouth. Here is a little estuary, where the tidal waters, entering by a narrow channel, spread over a flat some

acres in extent. The river inside the bar is navigable for small craft for two or three miles, and piers have been built seaward. The minimum depth at the bar outside is 8 ft. 6 in. at low water of the spring tide. Beyond the mouth of the Great Fish River there is a small bay called Waterloo Bay, a dangerous open anchorage which was much used for the purpose of landing Government stores in the war of 1856-7; but it is now abandoned.

(16) The next harbour of importance passing up the coast is that of East London, at the mouth of the Buffalo River. Here, as elsewhere along these coasts, exists the fatal bar of sand outside the harbour, which prevents vessels coming inside. Occasionally a freshet down the Buffalo River will sweep away the obstacle and disperse it in the sea, and vessels drawing seventeen feet of water can come in; but the temporary channel soon silts up again, and the bar is as formidable as ever. Upon the advice of Sir John Coode, training-walls forming quays have been built along the mouth of the Buffalo, so as to narrow the river channel, and thus increase the scour; and a breakwater of concrete blocks, like that of Portland, has been constructed, forming an arm outside, so as to prevent the sea from checking the river's overflow and driving the sand back upon the bar. Nearly half a million of money has been spent upon it already, and it is expected that ultimately there may be twenty feet of water on the bar at high water. In former days the only method of landing was by means of surf boats, which were both dangerous and uncomfortable. The coast between East London and Port Natal runs nearly straight from south-west to north-east, and is very little indented or broken. Numerous streams and rivers find their way seaward from the neighbouring mountains, and here and there, as at Mazeppa Bay, north of the Great Kei River,

and at St. John, at the mouth of the Umzimkulu, in Pondoland, small vessels have occasionally entered; but there is no harbour deserving the name.

(17) Port Natal is the most sheltered and land-locked harbour between Table and Delagoa Bays. It is about 31⁄2 miles long and 24 miles across inside, and about 600 yards wide at the entrance. On the south side of Port Natal is the well-known Natal Bluff. There is a bar of sand here which has taxed all the skill and energy of marine engineers, and the great problem of Durban, the chief town of Natal, is to make a commodious and efficient harbour. To effect this an extraordinary amount of skill and perseverance has been called into play, the Harbour Board having set themselves with the keenest and most dogged determination to make their harbour accessible to all ships in all weathers and at all times. The harbour works consist of two piers, the north of which consists of a monolithic wall 1905 feet in length. The two walls of the south pier, beginning from the Bluff, with an interval of 391 feet between them, gradually approach and become one work. The difficulty which the marine engineer has to contend with is found in the enormous quantities of floating sand drifted upwards along the shore back-flow of the great Mozambique current. In 1888 thirty-three vessels of over fifteen feet draught entered the harbour.

(18) In Zululand, north of the Tugela, there is Port Durnford, a place used to land war materials during the Zulu war, and at the northern extremity, before Amatongaland is reached, there is the broad shallow lagoon of St. Lucia Bay, a malarious spot and of little present use. Here and there along the Zululand coast are said to be spots which can be converted into landing-places and utilised for the purposes of traffic, but it is impossible that any port in Zululand can ever compete with Durban

In Ama

on the south, and Delagoa Bay on the north. tongaland the mouth of the Kosi River is said to offer some natural advantages.

(19) Delagoa Bay is acknowledged to be the finest harbour in South Africa. Thousands of vessels could anchor there, and it has sufficient depth at low water to allow vessels to cast anchor close to the shore. The bay, which looks northward, lies behind Inyack Peninsula, the width from Cape Inyack to the mainland being twenty-five miles. Its length is about seventy miles, between lat. 26° 20′ and 25° 2′ S. Between Inyack Island and Inyack Peninsula a line of shoals extends called the Catfield, Dommett, Hope, and Cockburn; but between these shoals deep channels exist.

(20) Between Delagoa Bay and the mouth of the Zambesi River the coast-line is more uneven and broken than further south, and here and there are seen groups of islands off the coast. North of Cape Corrientes is Inhambane Bay, lying just outside the Tropic of Capricorn, and past Cape San Sebastian, lat. 22° S., the latitude in the interior of the northern boundary of British Bechuanaland; and to the north of Cape Maria, at the mouth of the Sabi River, lies Sofala. North of Sofala is the mouth of the Pungwe River, the nearest point to Mashonaland, where a port may soon be created. From this point the coast trends north-east to the Zambesi River.

From this brief survey of the coast-line of South Africa, from the Cunene River on the west to the Zambesi River on the east, it will be seen how true is the assertion that there is scarcely a natural harbour deserving the name, and fit to hold vessels of deep draught. The bays on the west coast usually face northwards, with wide unprotected entrances, as St. Helena Bay and Table Bay. On the south they are invariably exposed to the fury of the south-east gales, and wherever