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National Geographic : 1896 May
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AFRICA SINCE 1888 and added a large tract to that already under British protection. But still beyond lay richer lands, and in June, 1895, a territory called Northern Zambesia and Nyassaland, larger and more val uable than the original grant, was added to the South African Company. This was the land discovered by Dr Livingstone, set tled by Scotchmen at his instance, and here on lake Bangweolo he died. The whole territory is now called Rhodesia, or Zam besia, and extends from Cape Colony north over two thousand miles past lake Nyassa, with lake Tanganyika as its northeastern boundary and the Kongo Free State its northwestern. The com pany now claim a territory of nearly one million square miles, an area larger than Europe exclusive of Russia. The country is very thinly populated, and the valleys of the Limpopo and Zambesi are infested by the tsetse, a stinging fly unknown elsewhere; its bite is fatal to the horse and ox; it seems, however, to disappear with the advance of civilization. But notwithstanding this pest, Zambesia, with its great elevation, its fine climate, its fertile soil (much of it capable of cultivation by irrigation), and its great mineral deposits, may become one of the most wealthy and densely populated portions of Africa. Within the territory of the South African Company are the richest diamond mines in the world, and just over its border, in the Transvaal, the richest gold mines. DIAMONDS India was formerly the only country in which diamonds were found to any great extent. They were afterward discovered in Brazil, and some of small size have been found in other places. The diamond fields of both India and Brazil appear to be nearly exhausted. The first diamond discovered in South Africa was found in 1868 near Kimberley, 620 miles north of Cape Town. Since 1870, when mines were opened, the production has rapidly increased, and in twenty-five years these mines have produced more and larger diamonds than all other countries, 98 per cent of the present production of the world coming from Kimberley. These stones are found in a region about twelve miles in cir cumference, where four small hills or pipes, as they are. called, rise from 60 to 80 feet above the ground, probably natural chim neys or extinct craters, lined with walls of basalt, broadening out below the surface to a great depth. These craters are filled with a blue diamantiferous formation, which has been forced to the surface of the ground by the pressure of the subterranean
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