The drainage of South Africa is effected by the Orange River flowing into the Atlantic, the Zambesi, Limpopo and other streams into the Indian •Ocean, as well as numerous small streams. Owing to the steep fall, and the intermittent supply of rain, only the Zambesi is at all available for navigation. That river, which forms a great delta on the coast of Portuguese East Africa, divides Southern Rhodesia from British Central Africa. It is navigable by steamers of light draught from its mouth for 300 miles to the Kebra Basa rapids above Tete; a steamer placed on the river above those rapids has reached the mouth of the Gwai, 600 miles farther and from this point onwards a succession of rapids and two large waterfalls make the river unnavigable for any long distance without a break. The drainage basin of the Orange River is the whole country south of the Witwatersrand enclosed by the escarpment, excepting a small area in Calvinia and Namaqualand. The main stream of that river, which is swelled by many tributaries, rises in the Basuto highlands, and on the coast side of the range countless rivers and torrents struggle through the mountain defiles during the rainy season. But during the greater part of the year when there is no rain many of these rivers are only dry beds. The Vaal River. like the Orange, is not navigable, but has a more varied course, traversing the hilly country made of pre Karroo rocks around Parys and Venterskroort, and for a distance of over 230 miles it occupies, together with its affluent the Hart's River and the Orange River, the course of an ancient pre-Karroo valley (Kaap), from Vryburg to Prieska. The Limpopo receives the drainage of the northern and middle Transvaal either by gorges cut back through the escarpment or, higher up its course, by the Magalakwin, Crocodile and other rivers which flow north ward, describing a semi-circle of nearly 1,000 miles between its source below Pretoria and its mouth above Delagoa Bay.
The plateau configuration of the country has the effect of maintaining the climate of South Africa with remarkable uni formity. Thus, Salisbury, in Rhodesia, though within the tropics and 16° nearer the equator, has a mean annual temperature only 2° higher than Cape Town, while the Mossel Bay has practically the same annual temperature as Pretoria and Pietersburg, respectively some and 101/2° farther north. The mean range between Cape Town and Salisbury is 62.6° and 64.6° Fahrenheit. The mean daily range in creases from the coast inwards, averaging slightly over 12° F. at the south coast stations and increasing to over 30° F. in Basutoland and parts of the High Veld, where, however, it is mostly between 26° and 28°. The seasons are the reverse of those in the northern hemi sphere, the three warmest months, December February; the maximum or day temperatures are highest (822° F.) in January, and decrease to the lowest (66.3° F.) in June, after which they rise again. The minimum or night tem perature curve falls from its highest value in February to its lowest point F.) in July. The rainfall varies
enormously, ranging from over 200 inches in the mountainous district of the southwest of the Cape Province to 2.5 inches at Port Nol loth, and 0.3 at Walfish Bay. In the east of the province the normal annual rainfall is about 62 inches.
native races are (1) the yellow-skinned Bushmen and Hottentots, and (2) the various branches of the dark-skinned Bantu. Up to the end of the 18th century the two former races constituted the pop ulation, but these are now practically extinct, as separate races, while the Hottentot stock has contributed largely to the population of mixed European and African blood known officially as ((colored persons.'" The Bantus, after more than a century of wars, have been brought with varying completeness under the control of European officials, and having bene fited physically by a modified European system of government, now show a rate of increase slightly higher than that of the European popu lation.
White Peoples.-- The original stock of the Boer or Dutch Afrikander people contained a considerable mixture of French blood. The foundation of the predominant white popula tion was laid almost exclusively between 1652 and 1690. The 1687 census showed 573 Euro peans, exclusive of the officials and servants of the Dutch East India Company. Immigration records show that the main elements of this parent stock were: (1) the discharged soldiers, sailors and other servants of the company who formed the original settlement in 1657; (2) parties of young women from the public or phanages of Holland, sent out by the company in 1685; (3) a community of Huguenot ref ugees; and (4) a number of Dutch families. The company took drastic measures from the first to prevent the Huguenots from establish ing a separate nationality, and by the middle of the 18th century the French language was forgotten and the refugees incorporated into the Dutch majority, speaking the broken Dutch patois known as the Taal. With the advent of British rule in 1806 arrived an influx of British officials, soldiers, merchants and missionaries, followed, in 1820, by some 5,000 British immigrants. During the next 50 years many thousands more were poured into the country, and English became the current language over wide areas. Over 2,000 men of the Anglo-German Legion were settled in British ICaffraria; other emigrants came also from central and eastern Europe, and Italy. After the close of the South African War (q.v.) some 2,000 British agricultural settlers were established side by side with the Boer farmers, and employment was found for 3,500 young women, mainly domestic servants, sent from Great Britain by the joint efforts of the government and private organizations.
Religion.— The Dutch Reformed Church and the Third Afrikanshe Gereformeerde Kirk have the largest European membership (700,000 in 1911), the Church of England coming sec ond with some 260,000. Next in strength are the Wesleyans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Con gregationalists, Roman Catholics, Lutherans and Jews.