Africa . nge river half-waydown the western side of the Colony, is as yet the onlyimportant mineral district of the Cape. Two centuriesago mines were opened here by the Dutch, and it is now thesite of the very extensive operations of the Cape CopperCompany, whose miners bring up an average of seventhousand tons of ore every year. The chief mine is thatof Ookiep, which is undoubtedly one of the richest in theworld. Its shaft has been sunk down 420 feet, and it1 Handbook of South Africa. Silver : London. 394 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. takes the best of the miners twenty minutes to climb
Africa . nge river half-waydown the western side of the Colony, is as yet the onlyimportant mineral district of the Cape. Two centuriesago mines were opened here by the Dutch, and it is now thesite of the very extensive operations of the Cape CopperCompany, whose miners bring up an average of seventhousand tons of ore every year. The chief mine is thatof Ookiep, which is undoubtedly one of the richest in theworld. Its shaft has been sunk down 420 feet, and it1 Handbook of South Africa. Silver : London. 394 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. takes the best of the miners twenty minutes to climb upthe ladders from the bottom to the open air. A railwayof about sixty miles in length has been constructed, toconvey the ore to Port Nolloth, on the adjoining sandyand barren Atlantic coast. Thin seams of coal have beendiscovered in the Central Nieuwveld Mountains, and inthe Stormberg, in the east, but, taking their distance fromthe coast into consideration, they are not valuable enoughto repay TABLE MOUNTAIN, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 8. Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. The south-western peninsula of the Cape Colony,which terminates in the famous Cape of Good Hope,besides being the nucleus whence during the two pastcenturies civilisation has spread out over many hundredsof miles of South Africa, is in itself one of the mostremarkable features of this region. Within it the greatmassive walls of Table Mountain rise to 3500 feet,flanked on the seaward side by the remarkable LionsHead and Eump, and on the inner by the picturesque THE CAPE COLONY. 395 Devils Peak. Nowhere else in the colony is there alandscape combining such grand mountain and woodlandscenery, varied with vineyards and cultivated the Cape peninsula shuts in the wide openingof False Bay, within which again is the well-shelteredand safe anchorage of Simons Bay, with its whitewashedhouses scattered along the beach under lofty bare hills ofsandstone, on each side of the Naval yard, the only Britishna
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