NAMAQUALAND, a vast region of south-western Africa, extending along the west coast for a distance of 600 miles from the south of Damaraland (22° 43' S. lat.) to the north of the county of Clanwilliam (30° 35' S. lat.), and stretching inland from 80 to 350 miles. It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into two portions —Little Namaqualand to the south, and Great Namaqualand to the north. Little Namaqualand, incorporated with Cape Colony since 1865, has an area of 20,635 square miles, and in 1875 had a population of 12,233, of whom 2675 were whites. The seat of magistracy is at Springbokfontein, on a branch of the Büffels River, about 60 miles from the coast, with which it communicates by a mule-railway (96 miles long) ending at Port Nolloth on Robbe or Seal Bay. Ookiep, 6 miles to the north of Springbokfontein, is, next to the diamond fields of Kimberley, the most important mining place in South Africa, its copper mines (worked by the Cape Copper Mining Company) giving employment to about 1500 people; the output in 1882 was 16,311 tons of extremely rich ore. The European miners are mainly from Cornwall and Mansfeld. Copper is also worked at Concordia, Spektakel, and (since 1853) Kodas. Great Namaqualand has an area of 987,000 square miles, about sixteen times the size of England; but its population does not exceed 20,000, mostly Namaquas and other Hottentots (see Hottentots). For 30, 40, or even 100 miles inland the country is a sandy -waste, and on the eastern side it passes off into the great Kalahari desert. The central portion is traversed from north to south by the Fish River or Oub and its tributaries, which ultimately reach the Orange River about 70 miles above its mouth; but, except after rain, they are mere dry beds. And the rains are ...