having been picked up at Reitfontein, near the Vaal River, in August of that year. Since then the precious crystals have been found in the Pretoria district, in Roodeplaats on the Pienaars River, at Kameelfontein and at Buffelsduff. The output of gold in 1898 was $68,154,000, and of diamonds $212,812.01. The total output of gold since it was first discovered amounts to over $300,000,000, with $3,500,000,000 “in sight,” as valued by experts. The commerce of the South African Republic, while necessarily great because of the large number of people employed by the mining industries, cannot be as accurately stated as that of states whose imports are all received through a given port or ports. Foreign goods reach it through several ports in Cape Colony, Natal, Portuguese East Africa, and in smaller quantities from other ports on the coast. The total imports for 1897 are estimated at $107,575,000. Griqualand West, a British possession bordering on Cape Colony on the south and on the Free State on the east, owes its chief importance to the Kimberley diamond mines, near the western boundary of the Free State and 600 miles from Cape Town. These mines were opened in 1868 and 1869. It is estimated that since that time $350,000,000 worth of diamonds in the rough—worth double that sum after cutting—have been taken out. This enormous production would have been greatly exceeded had not the owners of the various mines in the group formed an agreement by which the annual output was limited to a small excess over the annual demand in the world’s diamond markets. So plentiful is the supply, and so inexpensive, comparatively, is the cost of mining that other diamond-producing works have almost entirely withdrawn from the industry since the South African mines were opened. It has been estimated that ninety-eight per cent of the diamonds of commerce are now supplied by these mines. The British protectorate of Bechuanaland, lying to the north of Cape Colony and Griqualand and to the west of the Transvaal, has an area of about 213,000 square miles, with a population of 200,000—mostly natives. A railway and telegraph line connect it with Cape Colony on the south and Rhodesia on the north.