306 



TILE POPULAK EDUCATOE. 



Madagascar, contains about 970 square miles, and has a popu- 

 lation of upwards of 200,000. Mauritius, belonging to Great 

 Britain, is about 115 miles north-east of Bourbon, contains 

 713 square miles, and has a population of about 370,000. At- 

 tached to it in government are the Seychelles or Mahe Islands, 

 the Amirante Islands to the north of Madagascar, and Rodri- 

 gues, about 300 miles east of the Mauritius. The Comoro 

 Islands are situated in the Mozambique Channel, Pemba Island 

 and Zanzibar Island off the coast of Zanguebar, and the island of 

 Socotra about 130 miles east of Cape Guardafui, being about 80 

 miles long, and having a surface of nearly 1,200 square miles. 



Gapes, Headlands, and Promontories. The capes, headlands, 

 and promontories of Africa form some of its most remarkable 

 features. On the north is Cape Ceuta (the ancient Abyla), a 

 high promontory jutting out into the sea, and terminating in 

 perpendicular rocks ; this promontory lies directly opposite the 

 rock of Gibraltar (the ancient Calpe), in the Strait of Gibraltar; 

 and these two rocky headlands, flanking the water-way from the 

 land-encircled Mediterranean Sea into the open expanse of the 

 Atlantic Ocean, were denominated by the ancients the Pillars of 

 Hercules. In the Mediterranean, eastward from these, are Ras- 

 al-Krun, Cape Blanco, and Cape Bon ; and westward and south- 

 ward, in the Atlantic, are Cape Spartel, Cape Cantin, Cape Nun, 

 Cape Bojador, Cape Blanco, Cape Verd, Cape Roxo, Cape Sierra 

 Leone, Cape Palmas, Cape Three Points, Cape Formosa, all 

 north of the equator ; south of this line are Cape Lopez, Cape 

 Negro, Cape Frio, and Cape Voltas ; while doubling the Cape of 

 Good Hope, are to be seen False Cape, Cape Agulhas, Cape 

 Natal, and others on the south coast of Africa. Ascending the 

 oast coast, towards the equator, occur Cape Corrientes, Cape St. 

 .Sebastian, Cape Delgado, and a variety of other capes called by 

 the common name of Ras, which signifies head (originally from 

 the Hebrew), just as cape signifies head, from the Latin caput. 

 In the Red Sea, the entrance to which is by the strait of Bab-el- 

 raandeb, there are a variety of capes known by the same appel- 

 lation, Ras, but they are too minute for a general view ; and of 

 the Isthmus of Suez, common to Africa and Asia, we have 

 formerly had occasion to speak. 



The mountains of Africa, as far as the interior is concerned, 

 are scarcely known. In the northern part of this continent are 

 the celebrated mountains, long known by the name of Atlas, 

 iiud as having originated the name Atlantic, still applied to the 

 surrounding ocean. These mountains run through the Barbary 

 states, and separate them from the Great Desert ; they vary in 

 elevation from 3,000 or 4,000 to 11,400 feet, the latter being 

 :'.mong the highest points, and situated near the city of Marocco. 

 'L'hrough Abyssinia runs another range, separated by deep 

 valleys and gorges into ranges, groups, and sometimes isolated 

 peaks, of which the most elevated rise to the height of 15,000 

 t'eet above the level of the sea. 



In Western Africa are to be found the Kong Mountains; 

 and in Eastern Africa, the mountains Kilimanjaro, Mfumbiro, 

 and Kenia, each of which is from 10,000 to 20,000 feet high, 

 and connected with vast interior mountain ranges, called by 

 some the Mountains of the Moon, and by others the Blue Moun- 

 tains, the whole forming a rampart round the outer edge of the 

 inland basin which contains the great equatorial lakes. Within 

 the limits of Cape Colony there are ranges of mountains rising 

 from the coast towards the interior in a series of precipitous 

 steeps and plateaus, that form a succession of what may be 

 termed gigantic steps. These ten-aces, with the mountain slopes 

 that edge them towards the south, are three in number, namely, 

 the Swellendam Mountains, near the coast, of which Table Mpun- 

 tain, 3,582 feet high, forms a part; the Swarte, or Black Moun- 

 tains, further inland ; and a third range in the interior, which is 

 known by different names in different parts of the chain, being 

 called the Nieuwveld Mountains in the west, Sneewbergen in 

 the centre, and Drakensberg in the east. Some peaks of the 

 Drakensberg attain a height of 10,000 feet, and form the 

 culminating points of Southern Africa. 



Table-lands, Plains, Deserts. The table-lands, plains, and 

 deserts in this continent are immense and to a great extent 

 unexplored. Sahara, or the Great Desert, is a vast plateau, 

 varying in elevation from 1,000 to 5,000 feet in height, with 

 valleys and oases, or fertile tracts of land, intervening at distant 

 intervals, to relieve the general monotony and sterility. Its 

 length is about 3,000 miles, and its breadth in some places ex- 

 ceeds 1,000 miles ; it stretches from the shores of the Atlantic 



to the hills which border the valley of the Nile on the west. 

 Eastward of that river, and stretching to the shores of the Red 

 Sea, are the deserts of Egypt and Nubia, high plateaus traversed 

 by ranges of mountains, in which are formed the torrent beds 

 which create the annual inundations, and fertilise the valleys of 

 those countries. In the south of Africa, between the parallels 

 22 and 27 S. lat., is the Kalahari Desert, a vast elevated 

 plateau 3,500 feet above the level of the sea, from which the 

 ground slopes on either side towards the sea. 



Lakes. In Central Africa lies the great basin of Lake Tchad, 

 several thousand square miles in surface, varying with the 

 seasons, and receiving some small tributary streams. This lake 

 is surrounded by the kingdoms if kingdoms they may be called 

 of Kanem, Bornou, Baghirmi or Begharmi, and Waday. It is 

 the centre of a rich, fertile, and prosperous country. To the 

 east of Lake Tchad is Lake Fittre ; and near Timbuctoo, on the 

 west, is a small sheet of water through which the main stream 

 of the Niger runs, called Lake Debo or Dibbie. In Dahomey 

 are the small lakes Avon and Denham. In the southern part 

 of the continent are Lake Ngami, Lake Dilolo, Lake Nyassa, 

 Lake Shirwa, and Lake Shuia all discovered or explored by 

 Livingstone. On the equator, and to the south of it on the 

 eastern side, are Lakes Victoria Nyanza, Albert Nyanza, and 

 Tanganyika, the first discovered by Captain Speke, Tanganyika 

 by Captains Speke and Burton, and Albert Nyanza by Sir 

 Samuel Baker. In Abyssinia is Lake Dembea. 



Rivers. The principal river in Africa is the celebrated Nile ; 

 it consists at first of two great arms called the Bahr-el-Azrek, or 

 Blue Nile, fed by head-streams that rise in Abyssinia, and the 

 Bahr-el-Abiad, or White Nile, which derives its waters from 

 Central Africa. It was thought when the Victoria Nyanza was 

 discovered by Speke that the great reservoir that supplied the 

 Nile had been discovered. It was, however, found by Sir Samuel 

 Baker, a few months after, that the Nile issued from Lake Albert 

 Nyanza, the Victoria Nyanza emptying itself into this sheet of 

 water by a short broad stream, called the Somerset. The true 

 origin of this river has occupied the attention of many of the 

 world's most noted travellers and explorers during the present 

 century, and foremost in the list of those who have devoted 

 heir lives and energies to the great work must be placed the 

 name of David Livingstone, who, after years of unprecedented 

 toil and sacrifice, died in 1873, just when his labour seemed 

 about to be crowned with success. The course of the Nile may 

 be estimated at from 2,500 to 3,000 miles in length. The chief 

 rivers of Eastern and Southern Africa, following the coast from 

 Cape Guardafui, are the Juba, Pangany, Zambesi, Limpopo, Ele- 

 phant River. Great Orange River, Coanza, Congo, and Gaboon. 

 On the west coast of Africa are the following rivers of considerable 

 note, and no small value in this part of the continent : The 

 Senegal of 1,000 miles, and the Gambia of the same length, 

 both watering the district Senegarnbia, whose appellation ia 

 formed by their united names ; and the Quorra, Joliba, or 

 Niger, about 2,300 miles in length, rising in Nigritia or Soudan, 

 and falling into the Bight of Benin. 



With' this lesson we give our readers a map of Egypt, a 

 country to which the attention of the public has of late years 

 been frequently directed as, for instance, on the occasion of 

 the opening of the Suez Canal and in whose fortunes Great 

 Britain is closely interested. 



SUMMARY OF BOUNDARIES. 

 North : The Mediterranean. 

 South : South Atlantic Ocean and 



Indian Ocean. 



East : Red Sea, Indian Ocean. 

 West : The Atlantic Ocean. 



SUMMARY OF OCEANS, SEAS, 



GULFS, ETC. 



Atlantic, W. and S. of Africa. 

 Indian Ocean, E. of Africa. 

 Red Sea, E. of Africa. 

 Mediterranean Sea, N. of Africa. 

 Gulf of Sidra, Mediterranean. 

 Gulf of Cabes, Mediterranean. 

 Gulf of Guinea, S. of Guinea. 

 Bight of Benin, Gulf of Guinea. 

 Bight of Biafra, Gulf of Guinea. 

 St. Helena Bay, Cape Colony. 

 Saldanha Bay, Cape Colony. 



Table Bay, Cape Town. 



False Bay, Cape of Good Hope. 



Algoa Bay, Cape Colony. 



Delagoa Bay, N. of Natal. 



Sofala Bay, Sofala. 



Mozambique Channel, E. of Sofala. 



Gulf of Aden, S.E. of Red Sea. 



SUMMARY OF STRAITS. 

 Gibraltar, Mediterranean. 

 Bab-el-Mandeb, Red Sea. 



SUMMARY OF ISTHMUSES. 

 Suez, between Mediterranean Sea 

 and Red Sea, connecting Asia 

 and Africa, and crossed by rail- 

 way and the great Suez Canal, 



SUMMARY OF ISLANDS. 

 The Azores, W. of Portugal. 

 Madeira, W. of Marocco. 



