Africa. The country, generally speaking, is very much of the same kind
as that northward, over the Karoo, and in the southern part of the
Transvaal. High land,--in the neighbourhood of Nieupoort 5,050 feet
above the sea level,--flat, bare, and treeless. It is certainly a very
desolate-looking country to travel over in winter. Nearing Cape Town,
however, I ought not to omit to mention the Hex River Pass. The scenery
here is certainly very grand, and is some of the best of its kind I have
seen in South Africa. The railway, which winds through it by a
succession of zigzags from a great height, is another of the many
triumphs of engineering skill which are to be found in all parts of the
world. The fine views of the Pass, when I traversed it, were heightened
by the tops of the mountains being tinged with a wreath of snow. From
Hex River the route to Cape Town lay through a rich and fertile valley,
conveying ample proofs of the agricultural value and resources of this
part of the Cape Colony. I arrived at Cape Town in the afternoon of the
following Wednesday. Here I spent another pleasant week, seeing various
friends.

[Illustration: HEX RIVER PASS.]

One of the last duties which devolved upon me before leaving South
Africa--at the urgent invitation of some of my friends--was to deliver
an address at Cape Town on Imperial Federation. This I did at the hall
of the Young Men's Christian Society, to a large and attentive
audience.[C]

On the 4th of September I left Cape Town in the s.s. _Athenian_; and,
after a pleasant and rapid voyage of eighteen days, touching only at
Madeira on the way, I landed safely at Southampton on Sunday the 22nd.