Africa were doing for themselves, and confess I was amazed when I saw the great docks, by means of which the commerce of South Africa is being encouraged, and by which it will hereafter be developed.  I was impressed, too, with the educational institutions, the great Public Library, worthy of any town, the South African Museum, the South African College, and the various efforts made to bring the newest and best knowledge home to the people.  But perhaps in Cape Town, the thing which impressed me as most curious was the new dock, in process of construction by excavating stone for the breakwater and other purposes.  This work was carried on by coloured convict labour.  The convicts thus become trained in useful manual work, as well as in habits of obedience, and when they are discharged, are not only better men, but people in whose work employers of labour have confidence.  I learned that the great public mountain roads in Cape Colony have thus been constructed by convict labour, at a comparatively small cost, while the convict acquires skill and useful training.  Going up country, my attention, among other matters, was turned to the distribution of mineral wealth and difficulties of water supply, for, as Sir Frederick Young has remarked, the water supply is one of the great problems which all persons have to consider in South Africa.  The season during which rain falls is short, and the rain drains rapidly down comparatively steep inclined surfaces, so that science of many kinds has to be enlisted to conserve the water, and turn the supply to account.  I found the rocks of much of the country have been curiously compressed and hardened and thrown into parallel irregular folds, and that these rocks were afterwards worn down by the action of water, at a time when the land was still beneath the ocean, with the result that many basin-shaped depressions are preserved and exposed, each of which holds a certain amount of water.  Just as we never dream of putting down a well in this country without knowing the positions of the water-bearing strata, so it is hopeless to bore profitably for water in the Colony till the districts are defined over which the water-bearing basins are spread.  Nothing arrests the escape of water in its course through the rocks more efficiently than intrusive sheets of igneous rock which rise to the surface, but until the distribution of these dykes is systematically recorded it will not be possible to open out all the water which is preserved underground.  There is no doubt that by utilising geological facts of this nature, a better water supply may be obtained, which will enable more land to be brought under cultivation, and larger crops to be raised.  I may say that the Colonial Government is fully aware of the importance of following out such lines of work, and steps are being taken to give effect to such exploration.  Vegetation, however, by its radiating power, must always be one of the chief aids to improved water supply.  In the matter