Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/290

Rh 268 AFRICA [STATES. commerce consists of gum-arabic, ivory, and gold, and is not inconsiderable. El Obeid, the chief town, is composed of several villages of mud-built houses, thatched with straw, containing about 12,000 inhabitants. byssinia. The boundaries of Abyssinia are somewhat uncertain; but confining it to the provinces actually under the govern ment of Christian or Mohammedan princes, it may be de scribed as extending from about 9 to 16 N. lat, and from 35 to 40 E. long. See ABYSSINIA. ,haran The Saharan countries extend from the Atlantic in the untries. west, to the Nilotic countries in the east, from the Barbary States in the north, to the basins of the Rivers Senegal and Kawara, and Lake Chad in the south. The area of this large space amounts to at least 2,000,000 square miles, or upwards of one-half of that of the whole of Europe. It is very scantily populated, but from our present defective knowledge of that region, the number of its inhabitants can be but roughly estimated. The physical configuration of the Sahara has already been indicated. Notwithstanding the proverbial heat, which is almost insupportable by day, there is often great cold at night, owing to the excessive radiation, promoted by the clearness of the sky. Rain is nearly, though not entirely absent, in this desolate region. It appears that when nature has poured her bounty over the adjoining regions in the south, and has little more left to bestow, she sends a few smart showers of rain to the desert, parched by the long prevalence of the perpendicular rays of the sun. The prevail ing winds blow during three months from the west, and nine months from the east. When the wind increases, into a storm, it frequently raises the loose sand in such quantities that a layer of nearly equal portions of sand and air, and ris ing about 20 feet above the surface of the ground, divides the purer atmosphere from the solid earth. This sand, when agitated by whirlwinds, sometimes overwhelms caravans with destruction, and, even when not fatal, involves them in the greatest confusion and danger. The natural products correspond with the physical fea tures of the country. Vegetation and animal life exist only sparingly in the oases or valleys where springs occur, and where the soil is not utterly unfit to nourish certain plants. Amongst the few trees the most important is the date-palm, which is peculiarly suited to the dryness of the climate. This useful tree flourishes best in the eastern part of the desert, inhabited by the Tibbus. The doum- palm is likewise a native of the same part, and seems entirely absent in the western Sahara; its northernmost limit is on the southern borders of Fezzan and Tegerry, in lat. 24 N. Acacias are found in the extreme west towards Senegambia, furnishing the so-called gum-arabic. In many parts of the desert a thorny evergreen plant occurs, about 18 inches high. It. is eagerly eaten by the camels, and is almost the only plant which supplies them with food w^hile thus traversing the desert. The cultivation of grains to a small extent is limited to the western oases of Tuat and others, a little barley, rice, and beans, being there grown. In the kingdom of Air there are some fields of maize and other grains ; but upon the whole, the population depend for these products on Soudan and other regions. There are but a few specimens of wild animals in these wildernesses ; lions and panthers are found only on its bor ders. Gazelles and antelopes are abundant, hares and foxes but scarce. Ostriches are very numerous, and vultures and ravens are also met with. In approaching Soudan, animal and vegetable life becomes more varied and abundant Of reptiles, only the smaller kinds are found, mostly harmless lizards and a few species of snakes. Of domestic animals, the most important is the camel, but horses and goats are not wanting, and in the country of the Tuaricks an excel lent breed of sheep is found, while in that of the Tibbus a large and fine variety of the ass is valuable to the inhabitants. Of minerals, salt is the chief production, which occurs chiefly near Bihna. The habitable portions of the Sahara are possessed by three different nations. In the extreme western portion are Moors and Arabs. They live in tents, which they re move from one place to another ; and their residences con sist of similar encampments, formed of from twenty to a hundred of such tents, where they are governed by a sheik of their own body; each encampment constituting, as it were, a particular tribe. They are a daring set of people, and not restrained by any scruple in plundering, ill-treating, and even killing persons who are not of their own faith ; but to such as are, they are hospitable and benevolent. The boldest of these children of the desert are the Tuaricks, who occupy the middle of the wilderness, where it is widest. The form of their bodies, and their language, prove that they belong to the aboriginal inhabitants of Northern Africa, who are known by the name of Berbers. They are a fine race of men, tall, straight, and handsome, with an air of independence which is very imposing. They live chiefly upon the tribute they exact from all caravans traversing their country. They render themselves formidable to all their neighbours, with whom they are nearly always in a state of enmity, making predatory incursions into the neighbouring countries. The third division of Saharan people are the Tibbus, who inhabit the eastern portion, comprising one of the best parts of the desert. In some of their features they resemble the Negroes. They are an agricultural and pastoral nation, live mostly in fixed abodes, and are in this respect greatly different from their western neighbours. Their country is as yet little explored by Europeans. The Tibbus are in part Pagans, while the other inhabitants of the Sahara are Mohammedans. The commerce of the Sahara consists chiefly of gold, ostrich feathers, slaves, ivory, iron, and salt, exchanged for manufactured goods, and transported across the desert by great caravans, which follow lines uniting the greater cities and oases of the southern and northern borders. Western Africa comprehends the west coast of Africa, Westers from the borders of the Sahara, in about lat. 17 N. to Africa. Nourse River, in about the same latitude south, with a con siderable space of inland territory, varying in its extent from the shores, and, in fact, completely undefined in its interior limits. Senegambia, the country of the Senegal and Gambia, Senegal extends from the Sahara in the north to lat. 10 in the kia. south, and may be considered as* extending inland to the sources of the waters which flow through it to the Atlantic. The western portion is very flat, and its contiguity to the great desert is frequently evidenced by dry hot winds, an atmosphere loaded with fine sand, and clouds of locusts. The eastern portion is occupied with hills and elevated land. Under the 10th parallel the hills approach quite close to the coast. The country possesses a great number of rivers, among which the Senegal, Gambia, and Rio Grande are the most important. Senegambia ranges, in point of heat, with the Sahara and Nubia. The atmosphere is most oppressive in the rainy season, which lasts from June to November, when an enormous amount of rain drenches the country. The prevailing winds in that period are south-west, whereas in the dry season they are from the east. The climate is, upon the whole, most unhealthy, and too gene rally proves fatal to Europeans. The vegetation is most luxuriant and vigorous. The baobab (monkey bread-tree), the most enormous tree on the face of the globe, is eminently characteristic of Senegambia. It attains to no great height, but the circumference of the trunk is frequently 60 to 75 feet, and has been found to measure 112 feet; its fruit, the monkey bread, is a princi-