Situation of Zones without Bain, and of Deserts. 369 



feet, presents a vast plain, interspersed with mountain crests, 

 elongated in various directions, unconnected with one ano- 

 ther, and resembling large islands disseminated over the sur- 

 face of the ocean. But to the south of Darfour and of Kor- 

 dofan, in the country of the Gallas, the Dingas-Schillucks, 

 and the Fungis, these asperities cease ; and, as far as the eye 

 can reach, nothing is to be discovered but a few rounded 

 elevations, disseminated in the midst of the uniformity of 

 the immense savannahs, which commence about 16° N. with 

 the region of the periodical rains of the tropic. From 9° N., 

 our information regarding central and southern Africa only 

 permits us to suppose, that, in that part, the plateau continues 

 to rise for a long distance, till it reaches an altitude of 

 nearly 6200 feet, and that it afterwards descends rapidly, 

 on the side of the Cape ; so that, hitherto, no continuous 

 chain, comparable to the chains of America, of Asia, or even 

 of the Alps, has been found on the longitudinal axis of this 

 inclined plane. 



At the two opposite extremities of this continent, we have, 

 on the one side, the Mediterranean mass of the Atlas, rising 

 to the height of perpetual snow in Morocco, and sinking gra- 

 dually to the east towards the plateau of Barka ; and, on the 

 other side, the mountains of the Cape of Good Hope and the 

 Snowbergs, to the north of Camdebo, as high, perhaps, but, at 

 all events, cold, and placed in 30° S., just as the preceding, 

 which occur in 30° N. 



From these terminal masses emanate, in some measure, the 

 chains and the terraces of the east and west of the continent. 

 The first (the eastern) extend from CafFraria, by Monomo- 

 tapa, Mozambique, and Zanguebar, into the country of the 

 Gallas, above which the elevations of Abyssinia rise to a 

 height of from 10,000 to 14,500 feet ; and they afterwards ter- 

 minate towards the Mediterranean in the interrupted chains 

 of Mokattam. 



The band of western eminences forms, in the same manner, 

 as regards Abyssinia, the mountains of Upper and Lower 

 Guinea, the great mass at the sources of the Niger, the Gam- 

 bia, and the Senegal, as well as the prolongation of these 



