African Continent. It is divided into two well marked 

 physical regions. About a third of its area is occupied 

 by a mass of highland, the greater part of which is at 

 an elevation of between 3,000 and 5,000 feet above 

 sea level — This mass runs from the extreme north of 

 the Island down south as far as the tropic of Capricorn 

 and form the watershed between the principal rivers 

 which run east and west. It forms a ridge of which 

 the long diameter is north and south, and of which 

 the width from East to West varies from 80 to 160 

 miles. It slopes steeply towards the Bast and on this 

 side are many of the numerous rivers, all of which are 

 short, deep cut gorges through this Eastern escarp- 

 ment, and make their way to the plain in a succession 

 of wooded cataracts. The fall of the Matitanana for 

 instance, leap at a simple plunge a depth of 500 or 

 600 ft. A good deal of this central elevated portion 

 of the Island is a bare and somewhat dreary looking 

 country consisting of rolling more like hills, covered 

 principally with long grass which gets very brown 

 and dry by the end of the summer. The soil is gene- 

 rally a red clay, granite, gneiss, and basalt are present 

 throughout the whole of this region, which has evi- 

 dently been raised above the sea level Erom a very 

 early geological epoch. (Opinions differ on the nature 

 of the soilj some afSrm that there is some little clay 

 found in central Madagascar : of the three rocks men- 

 tionned, granite is much more common than eitheJ 

 gneiss or basalt) . 



