I regretted that time did not permit of my visiting the celebrated Ostrich Farm of Mr. Arthur Douglass, at Heatherton Towers, about fifteen miles from Grahamstown. Mr. Douglass has the largest and most successful Ostrich Farm in the Colony, in addition to which he is the patentee of an egg hatching machine, or incubator, which is very much used in various parts of South Africa. The export of feathers has increased rapidly, and has become one of the chief exports of the Colony, as whilst in 1868 the quantity exported was valued at L70,000, in 1887 it had reached the value of L365,587. This is by no means the largest amount appearing under the head of exports during recent years, as in 1882 the value of feathers exported was L1,093,989. It is estimated that during the past half-century the total weight of the feathers exported has been more than one thousand tons. The Cape Colony has, in fact, had a monopoly of the ostrich industry, but in 1884 several shipments of ostriches took place to South Australia, the Argentine Republic, and to California, and the Government of the Cape Colony, being alarmed, that the Colony was in danger of losing its lucrative monopoly, imposed an export tax of L100 on each ostrich, and L5 on each ostrich egg exported. [Illustration: Decorative] PORT ELIZABETH TO CAPE TOWN. On my return to Port Elizabeth, I spent another day or two there, and left on the evening of Monday, the 26th of August, by railway for Cape Town. This long journey of between eight hundred and nine hundred miles occupies nearly two days and two nights. It was the last I took in South 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.]