AFRICA AND ITS ANIMALS 



If we take a map of the world, and, after tracing upon a 

 sheet of thin paper the outUne of the British Islands, cut 

 out the tracing and lay it upon India, we shall find that it 

 covers a mere patch of that great area. Repeating the same 

 process with India, and placing the tracing thus obtained 

 on Africa in such a manner that the sharp angle on the 

 tracing formed by Assam overlies the projecting point of 

 Somaliland, which it almost exactly covers, it will be found 

 that the whole area embraced in the tracing occupies only 

 a small patch in the middle of the eastern side of the Dark 

 Continent. As a matter of fact, the patch thus marked 

 out ends in a blunt point northwardly some distance above 

 Khartum, thence it runs south to the neighbourhood of the 

 Victoria Nyanza, from which district it rapidly narrows to 

 terminate in a sharp point a little distance to the southward 

 of Zanzibar. Allowing some slight overlaps, no less than 

 six Indias can indeed be traced on the map of Africa ; 

 and as these leave between them and on their margins 

 considerable spaces of the country still uncovered, it would 

 be but a moderate estimate to say that Africa includes at 

 least seven times the area of British India. Some idea, 

 especially to those familiar with our vast Indian dominions, 

 may in this manner be most readily gained of the huge 

 extent of the African continent. 



Having made these comparisons of the actual size of the 



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