Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1896 — RHODESIA. [ARTICLE]

RHODESIA.

Hi* Country that It Ruled by the British South African Company. West and north of the Transvaal He those immense British territories which iave been assigned to the British South African Company as its sphere of operitions. Bechuanaland—so called from Ihe prihcipal native race which occupies it—is a high and generally level country, mostly wooded, though the trees are but small, and with grass which is richer and more abundant than that of the Transvaal. It is look'd upon as likely to prove one of the aest ranching tracts in the continent. .Vlatabelelaud and Mashonaland, farther to the north, are equally high, but more undulating than Bechuanaland, with great swelling downs somewhat resembling the prairies of western Kansas. They are bright, breezy countries, very hot in the daytime for they lie within the tropic, but with nights cool even In midsummer, and a climate, which, except In the lower grounds (long the marshy Imuks of the streams, Is not merely healthy, but invigorating. Plenty of rain falls in December, January. and February, and it is only in October, at the end of the dry season, that the grass begins to fall on the i>natures. The subjacent rock is, as In Bechuanaland, usually granite; but here and there Ihhls of slate and schist are found, and in these Imhlh there nre quartz reefs, believed to Ik? rich in gold, and from which a great deal of cold must In days gone by lmve been extracted, so numerous nre the traces of ancient workings. The extreme eastern part of Mnshon(laud, where It borders on the domln'tms of Portugal, Is called Manlcnlnnd. riils Is a country of bold mountains of granite inlxisl with porphyry nnd slate -a country the loftiest peaks of which tlhc to a height of 8000 feet above the (on, and where a comparatively abun--salit rainfall makes the streams more numerous, nnd fuller even In llie dry season, than are those of any other part of the great plateau. Here lud there a piece of high table-land, some 7000 feet above sen-level, offers an atmosphere of rare salubrity, while n few miles farther to the eastward, in the low grounds which slope gently to the coast, malignant fevers warn Europeans against any attempt to settle, and make even n Journey from the sen to the highlands dangerous during Home months of the year.—Century.