Africa—Table-Land—Cape of Good Hope and Eastern Coast—Western Coast—Abyssinia—Senegambia—Low Lands and Deserts.

The continent of Africa is 5000 miles long from the Cape of Good Hope to its northern extremity, and as much between Cape GuardafuÏ, on the Indian Ocean, and Cape Verde, on the Atlantic; but from the irregularity of its figure it has an area of only 12,000,000 of square miles. It is divided in two by the equator, consequently the greater part of it lies under a tropical sun. The high and low lands of this portion of the old continent are so distinctly separated by the Mountains of the Moon, or rather of Komri, that, with the exception of the mountainous territory of the Atlas, and the small table-land of Barca, it may be said to consist of two parts only, a high country and a low.

An extensive, though not very elevated, table-land occupies all Southern Africa, and even reaches to six or seven degrees north of the equator. On three sides it shelves down in tiers of narrow parallel terraces to the ocean, separated by mountain-chains which rise in height as they recede from the coast; and there is reason to believe that the structure of the northern declivity is similar, though its extremities only are known—namely, Abyssinia on the east, and the high land of Senegambia on the west; both of which project farther to the north than the central part.

The borders of the table-land are very little known to Europeans, and still less its surface, which no white man has crossed north of the Tropic of Capricorn. A comparatively small part, north from the Cape of Good Hope, has been explored by European travellers. Mr. Truter and Mr. Somerville were the first white men whom the inhabitants of Litakoo had seen. Of an expedition that followed their track, a few years after, no one returned.

North of the Cape the land rises to 6000 feet above the sea; and the Orange River, or Gareep, with its tributaries, may be more aptly said to drain than to irrigate the arid country through which they flow; many of the tributaries, indeed, are only the channels through which torrents, from the periodical rains, are carried to the Orange River, and are destitute of water many months in the year. The “Dry River,” the name of one of these periodical streams, is in that country no misnomer. Their margins are adorned with mimosas, and the sandy plains have furnished treasures to the botanist; and, indeed, zoology is no less indebted to the whole continent of Africa for the various animals it produces.

Dr. Smith crossed the Tropic of Capricorn in a journey from the Cape of Good Hope, where the country had still the same arid character. North from that there is a vast tract unexplored. In 1802 two native travelling merchants crossed the continent, which is 1590 miles wide, from Loando on the Atlantic to Zambeze on the Mozambique Channel. They found various mercantile nations, considerably advanced in civilization, who raise abundance of maize and millet, though the greater part of the country is in a state of nature. Ridges of low hills, yielding copper, the staple commodity of this country, run from S.E. to N.W. to the west of the dominions of the Camleaze, a country full of rivers, morasses, and extensive salt marshes which supply this part of the continent with salt. The travellers crossed 102 rivers, most of them fordable. The leading feature of this country is Lake N’yassi, of great, but unknown length, and comparatively narrow. It begins 200 miles north from the town of Tete, on the Zambeze, and extends from S.E. to N.W., flanked on the east by a range of mountains of the same name, running in the same direction, at the distance of 350 miles from the Mozambique Channel. This is all we know from actual observation of the table-land of South Africa, till about the 10th northern meridian, where Dr. Beke’s Abyssinian journey terminated. It is evident, however, that there can be no very high mountains covered with perpetual snow on the table-land, for, if there were, Southern Africa would not be destitute of great rivers; nevertheless, the height of the table-land, and of the mountains of Komri on its northern edge, must be considerable, to supply the perennial sources of the Nile, the Senegal, and the Niger.

The edges of the table-land are better known. At the Cape of Good Hope the African continent is about 700 miles broad, and ends in three narrow parallel ridges of mountains, the last of which is the highest, and abuts on the table-land. All are cleft by precipitous deep ravines, through which winter torrents flow to the ocean. The longitudinal valleys, or koroos, that separate them, are tiers, or steps, by which the plateau dips to the maritime plains. The descent is rapid, as both these plains and the mountain-ranges are very narrow. On the western side the mountains form a high group and end in steep promontories on the coast, where Table Mountain, at Cape Town, 3582 feet high, forms a conspicuous landmark for mariners.

Granite, which is the base of Southern Africa, rises to a considerable height in many places, and is generally surmounted by vast horizontal beds of sand-stone, which give that character of flatness peculiar to the summits of many of the Cape mountains.

The koroos are arid deserts in the dry season, but soon after the rains they are covered with verdure and a splendid flora. The maritime plains partake of the same temporary aridity, though a large portion is rich in cereal productions, vineyards, fruits, and pasture.

The most inland of the parallel ranges, about the 20th meridian east, is 10,000 feet high, and, though it sinks to some groups of hills at its eastern extremity, it rises again, about the 27th meridian, in a truly alpine and continuous chain—the Quotlamba mountains, which follow the northerly direction of Natal, and are continued in the Lupata range of hills, 80 miles inland, through Zanguebar.

At Natal the coast is grassy, with clumps of trees, like an English park. The Zambeze, and other streams from the table-land, refresh the plains on the Mozambique Channel and Zanguebar, where, though some parts are marshy and covered with mangroves, groves of palm-trees adorn the plains, which yield prodigious quantities of grain, and noble forests cover the mountains; but from 4° N. latitude to Cape GuardafuÏ is a continued desert. There is also a barren tract at the southern end of the Lupata chain, where gold is found in masses and grains on the surface and in the watercourses, which tempted the Portuguese to make settlements on these unwholesome coasts.

The island of Madagascar, with its magnificent range of mountains, full of tremendous precipices, and covered with primeval forests, is parallel to the African coast, and only separated from it by the Mozambique Channel, 300 miles broad, so it may be presumed that it rose from the deep at the same time as the Lupata chain.

The contrast between the eastern and western coasts of South Africa is very great. The escarped bold mountains round the Cape of Good Hope, and its rocky coast, which extends a short way along the Atlantic to the north, are succeeded by ranges of sandstone of small elevation, which separate the internal sandy desert from the equally parched sandy shore. The terraced dip of the Atlantic coast for 900 miles, between the Orange River and Cape Negro, has not a drop of fresh water.

At Cape Negro, ranges of mountains, separated by long level tracts, begin, and make a semicircular bend into the interior, leaving plains along the coast 140 miles broad. In Benguela these plains are healthy and cultivated; farther north there are monotonous grassy savannahs, and forests of gigantic trees. The ground, in many places saturated with water, bears a tangled crop of mangroves and tall reeds, which even cover the shoals along the coasts; but pestilential vapours hang over them, never dissipated by a breeze.

The country of Calbongos is the highest land on the coast, where a magnificent group of mountains, covered almost to their tops with large timber, lie not far inland. The low plains of Biafra and Benin, west of them, and especially the delta of the Niger, consist entirely of swamps loaded with rank vegetation.

The angel of Death, brooding over these regions in noisome exhalations, guards the interior of that country from the aggressions of the European, and has hitherto baffled his attempts to form settlements on the banks of this magnificent river.

Many portions of North Guinea are so fertile that they might vie with the valley of the Nile in cereal riches, besides various other productions; and though the temperature is very high, the climate is not very unhealthy.

No European has yet seen the high mountains of Komri, generally known as the Mountains of the Moon, which are said to cross the continent along the northern edge of the great plateau, between the two projections or promontories of Abyssinia and Senegambia. This chain divides the semi-civilized states of Soudan, Bornou, and Begharmi from the barbarous nations on the table-land. It extends south of Abyssinia at one end, at the other it joins the high land of Senegambia, and is continued in the Kong range, which runs 1200 miles behind Dahomy and the Gold Coast, and ends in the promontory of Sierra Leone.

The vast alpine promontory of Abyssinia or Ethiopia, 700 miles wide, projects from the table-land for 300 miles into the low lands of North Africa. It dips to a low swampy region on the north, to the plains of Senaar and Kordofan on the west, and on the east sinks abruptly to the coast at a short distance from the Red Sea. It is there from 800 to 900 feet high, but declines to the westward, so that in the 15th parallel of N. latitude the eastern slope of the table-land towards the Red Sea is nearly twenty times greater than the counter-slope towards the Nile; the edge of the latter, however, is from 3000 to 4000 feet above the plains.^[38] The character of Abyssinia is in that respect like the Deccan, or Southern India, where the Ghauts rise abruptly near the coast of Malabar, and the surface falls gradually towards that of Coromandel. The table-land of Abyssinia is a succession of undulating plains, broken by higher insulated mountain-masses, which in Samien, Godjam, and in Kaffa more to the south, attain an absolute altitude of from 11,000 to 15,000 feet. The plains are intersected by numerous streams which form the Nile and its tributaries on the one hand, and the HawÁsh and its affluents, which flow into the Indian Ocean, on the other. The edge of the table-land towards the Nile is steep; the streams run to the low lands through valleys from 3000 to 4000 feet deep, so that a traveller in ascending them might imagine that he is crossing a mountain-range, whereas, on coming to the top, he finds himself on a high plain. This elevated country has lakes, swamps, verdant meadows, and cultivated land, producing various grains, and occasionally coffee. The plain of the Dembia, the granary of the country, enjoys perpetual spring. Dr. Beke, to whom we are indebted for so much valuable information with regard to this part of Africa, travelled to within less than ten degrees of the equator, and, from the accounts he received, the country south of Abyssinia appears to be similar to those of Shoa and Godjam—extensive undulating plains, with occasional mountain-masses, and traversed by numerous streams; wide tracts must be 7000 or 8000 feet high, as they only produce barley: the country towards Kaffa and the sources of the Gojeb is still higher, and in some parts desert; but the caravan-road between Wallega and Kaffa passes through a vast forest impervious to the rays of the sun, which, according to the accounts of the merchants, is not seen for four or five days successively; and west of the Dedhesa there are immense grassy plains, the elephant-hunting grounds of the Galla tribes.

The geological structure of Abyssinia is similar to that of the Cape of Good Hope, the base being granite and the superstructure sandstone, occasionally limestone, schist, and breccia. The granite comes to the surface in the lower parts of Abyssinia, but sandstone predominates in the upper parts, and assumes a tabular form, often lying on the tops of the mountains in enormous flat masses, only accessible by steps cut in the rocks or by ladders: such insulated spots are used as state prisons. Large tracts are of ancient volcanic rocks, especially in Shoa.

Senegambia, the appendage to the western extremity of the table-land, also projects far into the low lands, and is the watershed whence the streams flow on one side to the plains of Soudan, where they join the Joliba or Niger; and from the other side, the Gambia, Senegal, and other rivers, run into the Atlantic over a rich cultivated plain, but unhealthy from the rankness of the vegetation.

The moisture that descends from the northern edge of the table-land of South Africa, under the fiery radiance of a tropical sun, fertilizes a tract of country stretching from sea to sea across the continent, the commencement of the African low lands. A great part of this region, which contains many kingdoms and commercial cities, is a very productive country. The abundance of water, the industry of the natives in irrigating the ground, the periodical rains, and the tropical heat, leave the soil no repose. Agriculture is in a rude state, but nature is so bountiful that rice and millet are raised in sufficient quantity to supply the wants of a numerous population. Gold is found in the river-courses, and there are elephants in the forests; but man is the staple of their commerce—a disgrace to the savage who sells his fellow-creature, but a far greater disgrace to the more savage purchaser who dares to assume the sacred name of Christian.

This long belt of never-failing vitality, which has its large lakes, poisonous swamps, deep forests of gigantic trees, and vast solitudes in which no white men ever trade, is of small width compared with its length. In receding from the mountains, the moisture becomes less and the soil gradually worse, sufficing only to produce grass for the flocks of the wandering Bedouin. At last a hideous barren waste begins, which extends northwards 800 miles in unvaried desolation to the grassy steppes at the foot of the Atlas; and for 1000 miles between the Atlantic and the Red Sea the nakedness of this blighted land is unbroken but by the valley of the Nile and a few oases.

In the west about 760,000 miles, an area equal to that of the Mediterranean Sea, and, in some parts, of a lower level, is covered by the trackless sands of the Sahara desert, which is even prolonged for miles into the Atlantic Ocean in the form of sandbanks. This desert is alternately scorched by heat and pinched by cold. The wind blows from the east nine months in the year; and at the equinoxes it rushes in a hurricane, driving the sand in clouds before it, producing the darkness of night at midday, and overwhelming caravans of men and animals in common destruction. Then the sand is heaped up in waves ever varying with the blast; even the atmosphere is of sand. The desolation of this dreary waste, boundless to the eye as the ocean, is terrific and sublime; the dry heated air is like a red vapour, the setting sun seems to be a volcanic fire, and at times the burning wind of the desert is the blast of death. There are many salt lakes to the north, and even the springs are of brine; thick incrustations of dazzling salt cover the ground, and the particles, carried aloft by whirlwinds, flash in the sun like diamonds.

Sand is not the only character of the desert; tracts of gravel and low bare rocks occur at times, not less barren and dreary; but on the eastern and northern borders of the Sahara, fresh water rises near the surface, and produces an occasional oasis where barrenness and vitality meet. The oases are generally depressed below the level of the desert, with an arenaceous or calcareous border enclosing their emerald verdure like a frame. The smaller oases produce herbage, ferns, acacias, and some shrubs; forests of date-palms grow in the larger, which are the resort of lions, panthers, gazelles, reptiles, and a variety of birds.

In the Nubian and Libyan deserts, to the east of the Sahara, the continent shelves down towards the Mediterranean in a series of terraces, consisting of vast level sandy or gravelly deserts, lying east and west, separated by low rocky ridges. This shelving country, which is only 540 feet above the sea at the distance of 750 miles inland, is cut transversely by the Nile, and by a deep furrow parallel to it, in which there is a long line of oases. This furrow, the Nile, and the Red Sea, nearly parallel to both, are flanked by rocky eminences which run north from the table-land.

On the interminable sands and rocks of these deserts no animal—no insect—breaks the dread silence; not a tree nor a shrub is to be seen in this land without a shadow. In the glare of noon the air quivers with the heat reflected from the red sand, and in the night it is chilled under a clear sky sparkling with its host of stars. Strangely but beautifully contrasted with these scorched solitudes is the narrow valley of the Nile, threading the desert for 1000 miles in emerald green, with its blue waters foaming in rapids among wild rocks, or quietly spreading in a calm stream amidst fields of corn and the august monuments of past ages.

At the distance of a few days’ journey west from the Nile, over a hideous flinty plain, lies the furrow already mentioned, trending to the north, and containing the oases of Darfour, Selime, the Great and Little Oases, and the parallel valleys of the Natron Lakes, and Bahr-Belama or the “Dry River.” The Great Oasis, or Oasis of Thebes, is 120 miles long and 4 or 5 broad; the Lesser Oasis, separated from it by 40 miles of desert, is of the same form. Both are rich in verdure and cultivation, with villages amid palm-groves and fruit-trees, mixed with the ruins of remote antiquity, offering scenes of peaceful and soft beauty contrasted with the surrounding gloom. The Natron Lakes are in the northern part of the Valley of NitrÙn, 35 miles west of the Nile; the southern part is a beautiful quiet spot, that became the retreat of Christian monks in the middle of the second century, and at one time contained 360 convents, of which 4 only remain; from these some very valuable manuscripts of old date have recently been obtained.

Another line of oases runs along the latitude of Cairo, with fresh-water lakes—consequently no less fertile than the preceding. The ruins of the Temple of Jupiter Ammon are in one of them.

Hundreds of miles on the northern edge of the desert, from the Atlantic along the southern foot of the Atlas to the Great Syrtis, are pasture-lands without a tree—an ocean of verdure. At the Great Syrtis the Sahara comes to the shores of the Mediterranean; and, indeed, for 1100 miles between the termination of the Atlas and the little table-land of Barca, the ground is so unprofitable that the population only amounts to about 30,000, and these are mostly wandering tribes who feed their flocks on the grassy steppes. Magnificent countries lie along the Mediterranean coast north of the Atlas, susceptible of cultivation. History, and the ruins of many great cities, attest their former splendour; even now there are many populous commercial cities, and much grain is raised, though a great part of these valuable kingdoms is badly cultivated or not cultivated at all.

The base of the sandy parts of North Africa is stiff clay; in Lower Nubia, between the parallels of Assouan and Esneh, red and white granite prevail, followed by argillaceous sandstone; Middle Egypt is calcareous; and, lower down, the alluvium of the Nile covers the surface.

It would appear that Southern Africa, though similar in its unbroken surface and peninsular shape to South America, bears no resemblance to it in other respects, but has a great analogy to the Deccan in its triangular form, its elevated platform, and in the position of its encompassing mountain-chains, if, as there is every reason to believe, from the fertile region to the north, either that South Africa descends in a succession of terraces to the low lands, or that the Komri mountains have a real existence, and run directly across the continent. From the connection already mentioned between external appearance and internal structure, as well as from partial information, it is surmised that the mountains surrounding the two triangles in question are of corresponding constitution; that, if any secondary strata do exist in this part of Africa, they must be exterior to these chains, and neither on the summits of the high mountains nor in the interior; and that any tertiary strata on the table-land must, as in the Deccan, have formed the basins of fresh-water lakes.^[39]

The prodigious extent of desert is one of the most extraordinary circumstances in the structure of the old continent. A zone of almost irretrievable desolation prevails from the Atlantic Ocean across Africa and through central Asia almost to the Pacific Ocean, through at least 120 degrees of longitude. There are also many long districts of the same sterile nature in Europe; and if to these sandy plains the deserts of Siberia be added, together with all the barren and rocky mountain tracts, the unproductive land in the Old World is prodigious. The quantity of salt on the sandy plains is enormous, and proves that they have been part of the bed of the ocean or of inland seas at no very remote geological period. The low lands round the Black Sea and Caspian, and the Lake of Aral, seem to have been the most recently reclaimed, from the great proportion of shells in them identical with those now existing in these seas. The same may be said of the Sahara desert, where salt and recent shells are plentiful.