COMMUNICATIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA.—The railway system of South Africa may best be considered as a whole. From Capetown, a line runs across the Karroo and the High Veld to Kimberley, and then on through Bechuanaland and the Bechuanaland Protectorate to Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia, where it branches. One part goes north-west to cross the Zambesi at the Victoria Falls, and then north-east to Broken Hill. Broken Hill may be considered as the present terminus of the main line, which will probably be eventu ally continued through Northern Rhodesia into German East Africa ; but from it a branch runs to the frontier of the Belgian Congo, where it connects with the railway to Elisabethville in the Katanga. The other line from Bulawayo goes north-east to Salisbury, and con nects there with a line to Beira in Portuguese East Africa, which has thus become the port of Southern Rhodesia. From Port Elizabeth and East London two lines run through the north-east districts of the Cape, and meet at Springfontein in the Orange Free State, from which point the railroad is continued by way of Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, and Pretoria to Pietersburg in the Zoutpansberg district of the Transvaal. This line is connected
with that from Capetown to Bulawayo by cross-country branches between Naauwpoort and De Aar, Hamilton (near Bloemfontein) and Kimberley, Johannesburg and Fourteen Springs, and Johannes burg and Mafeking by Zeerust. From Durban, there is railway communication north and south along the coast, but the most important line is that which runs inland by way of Pietermaritz burg to Ladysmith, where it divides, one branch going by Van Reenen's Pass to Bethlehem, which is connected with Kroqnstad and Bloemfontein, and the other going by Laing's Nek to Johannes burg. Finally, Lourenco Marques has been made into a port of the Transvaal by a line which runs from it, passes through the coal districts west of Middleburg, and connects with Pretoria and Johannesburg.