Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/184

 164 AFRICA projects Cape Verd, so named from its rich green covering of gigantic baobab trees. Ap- proaching the equator, these are succeeded by a country still more fatal to man, in the man- grove swamps and reedy shore growths of the Guinea coast. On the Bed sea, a range of mountains originating in Abyssinia skirts the W. shore and descends on the north to the lower hills of Egypt, which are geologically connected with the Sinaitic peninsula. The maritime edge of the great South African plateau is bounded for the most part by moun- tain chains of various altitude, with shelving plains on their seaward slope. Between the E. and W. coasts which border the table land there is a marked difference. Along the At- lantic a series of terraces rises into the interior, intersected in some localities by low, level plains and fever-breeding swamps, and in others by grassy tracts and extensive forests. The highest of these terraces does not exceed 2,000 feet above the sea. From Cape Negro, in Ben- guela, to the mouth of the Orange river, the coast is a low desert backed by a sandstone ridge, beyond which extends the lofty but no less arid inland region. Along this 900 m. of seaboard there is not a single drop of fresh water, and not a spot of fertility except at Walvisch bay. The coast of Cape Colony is bold and rocky ; in Natal the surface rises grad- ually from the sea to the Drakenberg range, and thence northward to the Zambesi ; the shore consists of highlands which in some lo- calities attain the elevation of lofty mountains. Well watered and fertile plains occur opposite Zanzibar, but further N. the country becomes more sterile, and a desert occupies that portion of the continent comprised between lat. 4 N. and Cape Guardafui, its E. extremity. The strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, 20 m. broad, separates Africa from Asia, at the entrance to the Red sea. On the African side the coast is rugged, and rises abruptly from the sea, though only to the height of 380 feet. Considered with refer- ence to continental location, the mountains of Africa may be classed in five systems, as fol- lows: 1, the mountains of the Mediterranean basin, comprising the three ranges of the Atlas; 2, the mountains of the W. coast ; 3, the parallel chains of the Cape region ; 4, the mountains of the E. coast; and 5, the Abyssinian group. Isolated from the other parts of the continent by the Great Desert, the Atlas mountains extend across the N. W. portion, from the Mediterra- nean shores of Tunis to Agadir on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. The Lesser Atlas is the low- est range of this system and nearest the Medi- terranean; a little further inland the broad table land known as the Middle Atlas rises still higher ; and above this towers the jagged ridge of the Greater Atlas, in many points attaining an elevation of 12,500 ft. It has commonly been represented that these loftier peaks were above the line of perpetual snow ; but according to Dr. J. D. Hooker, the English botanist, who succeeded in ascending to the crest of the range near the city of Morocco in 1871, all the snow that falls on fairly exposed surfaces melts in the same year. Several spurs are thrown out from the main chain toward the Sahara, and one trends northward to the straits of Gibraltar. Little is known about the mountains of western Africa, except those in close proximity to the coast. Senegambia includes an elevated region which forms the watershed whence flow the Niger and the Senegal ; while in Guinea, N. of the gulf, are the Kong mountains, nowhere exceeding 3,500 ft. in height. The Cameroons rise from the shores of the bight of Biafra, and extend eastward to an unknown distance, with many lofty summits, some of which are esti- mated at 13,000 ft., though others do not ex- ceed 4,000 ft. We possess but little information as to the mountains which rise back of the ter- raced W. coast S. of the gulf of Guinea, but there are believed to be extensive ranges of very considerable height. The mountain sys- tem of the Cape country is peculiar. The con- tinent is here 700 m. in width, and partly across it stretch three crescent-shaped ranges parallel to the S. coast, and increasing in elevation with their distance from it. The innermost of these ranges borders upon the great interior table land, and between them are narrow tier-like flats, called karroos, forming three gigantic steps ascending from the ocean respectively 2,000, 4,000 and 6,000 ft. above its level. The karroos are connected by defiles known as kloofs, there being no other means of commu- nication between them. The names applied to the different sections of the intervening ranges are numerous. In the southernmost is the Zwellendam group, of which the most promi- nent height is Table mountain, 3,582 ft. high ; to the middle range belong the Zwarteberge, with an average elevation of 4,000 ft. ; and on the N. the Roggeveld, Nieuwveld, Sneeuwveld, and others make up the third barrier on the southern edge of the great S. African plateau. The Compass Berg, in the Sneeuwveld, is 10,000 ft. high. The mountains of the E. coast begin with the Quatlamba range, a continuous chain extending between the 27th parallel and the beginning of the delta of the Zambesi, 300 m. from the Mozambique channel, with an eleva- tion varying from 4,000 to 10,000 ft. The Drakenberg is that portion of this range which borders the colony of Natal. At the head of the delta it widens into a belt of fertile high- lands, and from this spot other mountain chains branch forth in various directions ; one west- ward, one northward toward Lake Nyassa, and the Lupata mountains southward along the coast of Sofala at a distance of 160 m. from the sea. The northward range is distinguished by no important peak S. of the 4th parallel ; but between lat. 3 and 4 S., some 200 m. from the Indian ocean, rises the beautiful snow- capped summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, 20,065 ft. high, and believed to be the loftiest mountain in Africa. It has lately been partially ascended by the Rev. Charles New, an Englishman, who