Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/163

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BRITISH ASSOCIATION IN SOUTH AFRICA
159

ence no ordinary one and enabled us to carry away facts and ideas which could hardly have been obtained in a much longer period. To those who are accustomed to travel in Europe and who have money and leisure for four months or more away from home, a visit to South Africa is to be highly recommended. The steamers, while not equipped with the excessive luxuries of the most modern North Atlantic boats, are comfortable and sail over waters which are rarely disturbed by storms or gales. The long distance trains are at least as good as those in Europe, and hotels, accustomed to cater for English people, will be found everywhere. The cost of such an expedition extended

A Street in Mombasa.

over four months need not exceed fifteen hundred dollars per head, including passage money.

Finally, what should South Africa hope to receive in return from those who have accepted her hospitality? An increased sympathy with her people, a better knowledge of their struggles in developing the resources of the country, and an attempt to put an end to the long career of misrepresentation which has been pursued by many public bodies and private individuals in the mother country, doubtless. But there is more. The colonies are not lands where the agriculturist can simply sow his seed and watch his crops grow; where the rancher can stock his farm and await the increase; where the planter puts in his trees and leaves them until the harvest is ripe; where the miner has only to dig out the gold and grow rich quickly; or where the trader can take his goods and calculate his profits beforehand. Irrigation,