A glance along this stretch of road will show that between De Aar and Bloemfontein it receives three tributary routes from three different points of the sea-coast--Port Elizabeth, Port Alfred, and East London--the whole system concentrating some sixty miles before Bloemfontein, at Springfontein, which thus becomes a {p.012} central depot fed by four convergent, but, in their origin, independent streams of supply; an administrative condition always conducive to security and to convenience.

This instance also illustrates the capital importance--especially in a military point of view--of a place where meet several roads from the permanent base of operations, which in the case of the British interior campaign is the sea.

The fall of Springfontein would close every avenue of supply by rail; but a blow at any one of the four lines which concentrate there does not necessarily affect the others.

Holding across-roads in fact exemplifies the homely phrase of killing two birds with one stone.
Beyond Springfontein the straightness of the line sufficiently testifies to the easy practicability of the country it traverses.

Upon this railroad system depend the supplies of the British army, which presents in both men and animals a concentrated mass of life heretofore unknown to the territory in which it is moving, and where, from previous conditions of population and development, necessary resources of every kind are deficient.