AFRICA 



77 



AFRICA 



but there are no mountain systems like the 

 Rockies and Andes in the two Americas, no 

 wide fertile valleys like that of the Mississippi, 

 no region like that of the Alps, where for 

 scores of thousands of square miles mountain 



ilr-d on mountain. In general, Africa is 

 ;t great tableland or plateau which in some 

 places runs abruptly to the very coast, but in 

 others leaves a narrow coastal plain. The 

 average height of this plateau is 2,130 feet, but 

 while in the southern part of the continent land 

 less than 2,000 feet above the sea is unusual, 



pt in the coastal plains, in the northern 

 part land above that elevation is the exception. 

 Tln line dividing the higher plateau regions 

 from the lower extends roughly from Suakin 

 on the Red Sea to the head of the Gulf of 

 Guinea. 



North Africa. It is in the lower northern 

 part that there occurs the highest mountain 

 range, the Atlas. This runs parallel to the 

 Mediterranean coast and attains in its western 

 half a considerable height, some of its peaks 

 exceeding 14,000 feet. The coast ward slope 

 of these mountains is gentle, and plains occur 

 at their base, but to the south they drop 

 abruptly and at one point are bordered by a 

 depression which is below sea level. The other 

 outstanding highlands of North Africa are 

 three: a north-and-south elevation along the 

 of the Red Sea ; a long ridge which runs 

 from northwest to southeast across the center 

 of the regions, and a comparatively low range 

 at the head of the Gulf of Guinea. The one 

 outstanding feature of the continent, more or 

 leas familiar to every child, is the great Sahara 

 Desert, stretching from coast to coast excepting 

 a narrow strip along the Nile River. This 

 great barrier between the north and south is 

 described in its proper place in these volumes. 



South Africa. Though South Africa has not 

 the largest mountain range, it has many high 

 peaks, for Kenia and Kilimanjaro rise to 

 In-inhfs OVW 18,000 and 19,000 feet. These are 

 close to the equator and are old volcanic 

 craters, but the Ruwenzori, which is a range 

 T than a peak and rises to a height of 

 16300 feet, is of the folded variety of moun- 

 tainsthat is, it is due to a lifting and bending 

 of the earth's crust, and not to a heaping up of 

 lava. 



The most important highland of the whole 



continent is the so-called plateau of Abyssinia, 



which begins in the country from which it takes 



ime and extends far to the south until it 



ends in the Drakenburg Mountains. In this 



great plateau there occur sharp furrows, or 

 rift valley cracks left by some disturbance of 

 the earth's surface in past geologic ages; and 

 in these basins are found the great lakes. 



Rivers and Lakes. Africa has five large 

 rivers in the order of their length the Nile, 

 the Congo, the Niger, the Zambezi and the 

 Orange ; and of these the Congo is second only 

 to the Amazon among the rivers of the world 

 in the volume of water it carries to the sea 

 (see article on each river named). But these 

 rivers, except the first named, have had no 

 such effect on the history and commerce of the 

 countries they traverse as have the Mississippi 

 and the Saint Lawrence; for in common with 

 other African rivers they have one great fault 

 as waterways. Rising in the high plateaus, 

 they drop down the successive terraces toward 

 the coast in a series of waterfalls which make 

 for picturesqueness and beauty but not for 

 navigation. As the development of the conti- 

 nent goes on, however, under the guidance of 

 Europeans, this difficulty is being surmounted 

 in many places by the building of railroads 

 about the falls. 



The Zambezi is the only one of the great 

 river systems which discharges its waters into 

 the Indian Ocean, for the drainage of Africa, 

 like that of most of the other continents, is 

 into the Atlantic. However, about one-third 

 of the vast territory sends no waters into the 

 sea, and in this proportion of its interior drain- 

 age Africa surpasses all other continents except 

 Asia. Much of this inward-flowing water finds 

 its way into Lake Chad, in the Sudan a large, 

 shallow body of water which remains fresh 

 despite the fact that, except in times of flood, 

 it has no outlet. 



This second largest of the continents, which 

 boasts next to the largest river in the world, 

 also possesses the largest fresh-water lake but 

 one, for Victoria Nyanza is surpassed only by 

 Lake Superior. It lies in the eastern part of 

 the continent, and its northern boundary 

 touches the equator. To the west of this great 

 lake stretches a chain of smaller bodies of 

 water which occupy one of the rift valleys and 

 lie at a greater height above sea level than 

 most other lakes of tin- world. These are 

 Tanganyika, the longest lake in (he world, and 

 one of the deepest; Kivu Albert Edward Ny- 

 anza and Albert Nyansa. Other noteworthy 

 an lakes are Tsana, in Abyssinia, Mweru, 

 and Bangweolo, the last-named of which is 

 little more than a morass except in the rainy 



