Biafra and Benin, belonging to the Atlantic; and Delagoa Bay, on the side of the Indian Ocean.

The chief headlands are Cape Bon, Ras-el-Krun, and Cape Spartel, on the north coast; Capes Bajador, Blanco, Verde, Palmas, and Negro, on the west; Capes of Good Hope and Agulhas, on the south; and Capes Corrientes, Delgado, and Guardafui, on the east coast.

The name of Africa, as applied by the Romans, indicated only the province of Carthage. In subsequent times, it was extended to the whole region of which the province was a very limited portion, and which was generally denominated Libya by the ancients.

Descriptive terms occurring in the geography of Africa:-Blanco, white; Verde, green; Roxo, red; Niger, black; Agulhas, a needle; Corrientes, currents; Bajador, round; Ras, a cape; Wady, a valley; Berg and Jebel, a mountain; Oasis, a fertile spot; Karroo, an arid plain; Ain, a well or spring; Kraal, a village; Belad, a country.

344. The more remarkable prominences of the surface are the Atlas chain, in the Barbary states, on some of the highest peaks of which there is perpetual snow; the plateau of Abyssinia, with its towering summits, till recently deemed the culminating part of Africa; the mountains of Kong, in Soudan, extending to an unknown distance into the interior, of moderate elevation; the lofty Cameroons, on the Bight of Biafra, luxuriantly clothed with vegetation nearly to their crests; the snow-crowned Kilimandjero, in eastern Africa, south of the equator, the highest known point, supposed to attain 20,000 feet; and several ranges in the Cape colony. But the whole interior of the great southern projection, or the country from the borders of the Cape to the north of the equator, is thought to be a lofty and extensive table-land, supporting ranges of mountains on its edges, and declining by terraces to the Indian Ocean on the east and south, the Atlantic on the west, and Soudan or Nigritia on the north. This region, sometimes distinguished as High Africa, is very little known, and the remainder of the surface consists largely of unexplored country. But as far as modern travel has penetrated, it is remarkable, that no volcano, active or extinct, has been met with, though several occur in the islands; and earthquakes are either confined to them, or only known on the borders of the Mediterranean and Red Seas.

345. The principal rivers are the Nile, connected with the Mediterranean; the Niger, Senegal, Gambia, Zaire or Congo, and Gariep or Orange, entering the Atlantic; and the Zambezi, with numerous streams flowing to the Indian Ocean, of whose character and course information is wanting. Lake Tchad, in Nigritia, lined with impenetrable thickets of tall grasses; Lake Dembea or Tzana, in

Abyssinia; and Lake Ngami, recently discovered in southern Africa, are extensive fresh water formations. Small salt and natron lakes are numerous. The supply of water, however. is singularly scanty in this division of the globe; various causes contributing to produce a generally dry and burning climate, all referable to peculiarities of physical position and natural configuration. The most influential are, the vast extent of surface lying within the tropics, exposed to the vertical rays of the sun; the want of inlets of the ocean, admitting the cool sea-breezes to the interior; the high lands which line the northern coast repelling the cool north winds, and with them the vapours from the Mediterranean; the absence of protection from the currents of air which have passed over the warm tracts of Arabia and the Persian Gulf; a deficiency of mountains comparable to the grand Andean and Himalayan chains; a scanty supply of forests, to protect the earth from the sun's rays, and generate cold by the exhalation of aqueous vapour; and the prevalence of sandy soil. These causes operate with powerful effect in impressing upon Africa generally a character of excessive heat and aridity. The highest mean temperature hitherto observed in any part of the globe, 87.3°, occurs at Massowah, in Abyssinia, on the borders of the Red Sea. Owing to the circumstances stated, the development of organic life is checked over a vast area, and desert wastes are prominent in the natural geography. Northern Africa has an immense tract of this description, styled the Sahara or desert, by way of eminence, a region of sands, upon which rain seldom or never falls, and where only a few springs occur at wide intervals. Southern Africa has also its karroos, which are deserts of a somewhat different kind, being visited with periodic rains, and carpeted with verdure as the consequence for a brief period, but dried to the hardness of brick by the summer heat, when all vegetation

ceases.

346. While immense spaces occur either entirely naked, or thinly clothed with stunted plants, there are other spots more favoured with moisture, where huge animals roam unseen among the tall grasses, and trees of giant dimensions are produced; but these districts are among the most insalubrious on the globe, owing to the mass of vegetable matter (resulting from the united influence of

humidity and heat) surrendered to decomposition. The countries bordering on the Mediterranean have a flora analogous to that of the south of Europe. The northern skirts of the Sahara are distinguished by the date-palm, which has originated a name for the district, that of Beladal-Jerid, the land of dates. Upper Egypt and Nubia are prolific in cassia plants, from the leaves of which senna is prepared,—an important article of commerce. Abyssinia is the native region of the coffee shrub. On the banks of the Senegal and the Gambia, the landscape exhibits large gramineous plants, cotton-trees, acacias yielding gumarabic, and masses of the unwieldy baobab. In the Cape colony a very peculiar vegetation appears, consisting of singular succulent plants, geraniums, and heaths, the latter eminent for beauty and elegance of form, and variety of species.-African zoology, referring to the mammiferous orders, is characterized by the existence of the animal which makes the nearest approach to man of all the species of the brute creation, the chimpanzee, or black ourangoutang; by some remarkable genera exclusively confined to it, as the giraffe and hippopotamus; by the number of large or ferocious animals, the elephant, rhinoceros, lion, leopard, panther, and hyena; the great preponderance of the antelope tribe; and the numerous troops of equine quadrupeds, as the zebra and quagga. The true crocodile inhabits the tropical rivers: the one-humped camel is common to the entire north; and the king of birds, the swift-footed ostrich, traverses the deserts. Venomous insects abound; but those which are individually harmless are the greatest scourge, the termites or white-ants, and locusts, which swarm in prodigious numbers, and devour everything before them.

347. From an early period, a considerable quantity of gold, found in the form of minute grains or dust, has been obtained from the alluvium of the rivers, lakes, and valleys south of the Sahara. Other metals occur, but the metallic wealth of the whole region does not appear to be important. -Salt is abundant, and widely diffused; and natron, or soda, is obtained from lakes and springs.-The following summary expresses the physical characteristics of Africa :1. "That of all the quarters of the globe, it has the most truly tropical climate. 2. That, notwithstanding its nearly

insular form, its extent of coast is much less, in proportion to its area, than in the other quarters of the globe. 3. That the peculiar condition of the human species, the distribution and even the aspect of the lower animals and plants, and many of the characters of the African climate, are connected with its comparatively limited extent of seacoast, its extensive deserts, and arid soil. 4. That its springs, lakes, rivers, bays, and arms of the sea are fewer in number, and present more uniformity of aspect than is generally the case in other parts of the world. 5. That it is eminently characterized by its vast central and sandy deserts, its great southern table-lands, and the vast expanses of Karroo ground. 6. That of all the rock formations, those of sandstone and limestone are the most frequent and most widely distributed; that natron, a rare deposit in other countries, is comparatively abundant in Africa; that salt is very widely distributed, though in some districts it is wholly deficient; and the precious stones, so frequent in other tropical regions, are here of rare occurrence. That the metals, although met with in different quarters, are nowhere abundant; and that, of all the different metals, gold is the most generally distributed. 8. That no active or extinct volcanoes have hitherto been met with. 9. Lastly, that Africa is less frequently agitated by earthquakes than the other continents.'

7.

348. The population of Africa is probably estimated very low at 60,000,000; which gives about five inhabitants to the square mile. The northerns, or those who occupy the country from the Mediterranean to about the latitude of 20° N., consist largely of races not originally native to the soil, but of Arabs and Turks, planted by conquest, with a considerable number of Jews, the children of the Dispersion, and the recently introduced French. The Copts in Egypt, the Tuaricks and Tibboos of the Sahara, and the Berbers of the Atlas region, may be viewed as the descendants of the primitive stock, while those to whom the general name of Moors is applied are perhaps of mixed descent, native and foreign. From the latitude stated to the Cape colony, tribes commonly classed together under the title of the Ethiopic or Negro family are found, though many depart very widely from the peculiar physiognomy of the Negro, which is most apparent in the natives of the Guinea coast.