2 9 



The Realm of Nature 



CHAP. 



into a succession of snow -crowned peaks, the loftiest of 

 which was estimated by Mr. Joseph Thomson to be 15,500 

 feet above the sea. All round the coast, except in the 

 north and north-west, the edges of the plateau present a 



FIG. 61. Section across Africa on the equator. Vertical scale 300 times 

 the horizontal. Sea-level marked O. 



mountainous aspect, and several great volcanic summits 

 risel from their highest levels. Kenia, Kilima-njaro, and 

 Ruwenzori reach heights approaching 19,000 feet above 

 the sea. The loftiest elevated belt, which may be termed 

 the Great Plateau^ runs from the Red Sea southward and 

 westward across the continent, and may be looked on as 

 forming the main axis. Its greatest elevation is in the 

 rugged valley-riven plateau of Abyssinia, and it continues 

 highest on its eastern side. A strip of eastward-sloping 

 land, down which the Zambesi pursues a cataract-broken 

 course to the Indian Ocean, separates the Great Plateau 

 from a smaller plateau which fills the southern extremity of 

 the continent. This Southern Plateau sinks to the sea in 

 steep terraces bordered on the south and east by curved 

 mountain ranges, the most important of which is the 

 Drakenberg. It dips to the west and is drained by the 

 Orange River, a rapid stream flowing through a deep 

 canon far below the general level. The Great Plateau 

 sends off three long branches of high land toward the 

 north-west, which cannot be clearly traced on a map unless 

 the contour-line of 1500 feet is shown. The first or Coast 

 Ridge runs round the west coast and descends to sea-level in 

 terraced mountain slopes. It bears the high Cameroon 



