CHAPTER VIL 

 AFRICA— A SKETCH. II. 



Climate — Mineral and Vegetable Productions — Animals — 

 People — Explorations — Livingstone's Brilliant Work — 

 Stanley's Discoveries. 



'X' HE climate of Africa is mainly influenced by the fact that it 

 -'■ lies almost entirely within the tropics. In the equatorial belt, 

 both north and south, rain is abundant and vegetation very 

 luxuriant, dense tropical forests prevailing for about lo degrees 

 on either side of the line. 



To the north and south of the equatorial belt the rainfall 

 diminishes, and the forest region is succeeded by an open pastoral 

 and agricultural country. This is followed by the rainless regions 

 of the Sahara on the north and the Kalahari Desert on the south, 

 extending beyond the tropics, and bordering on the agricultural 

 and pastoral countries of the north and south coasts, which lie 

 entirely in the temperate zone. The low coast regions of Africa 

 are almost everywhere unhealthy, the Atlantic coast within the 

 tropics being the most fatal region to Europeans. 



Among mineral productions may be mentioned gold, which is 

 found in the rivers of West Africa, (hence the name Gold Coast), 

 and in Southern Africa, but rarely in much abundance; diamonds 

 have been found in large numbers in recent years in the south ; iron, 

 copper, lead, tin and coal are also found. 



Among the plants are the baobab, the datepalm (important as 

 a food in the north), the doum-palm, the oil-palm, the wax-palm, 

 the shea-butter tree, trees yielding caoutchouc, the papyrus, the 

 castor-oil plant, indigo, the coffee-plant, heaths with beautiful 

 flowers, aloes, etc. 



Among cultivated plants are wheat, maize, millet, and other 

 grains, cotton, coffee, cassava, ground-nut, yam, banana, tobacco, 

 various plaris,, etc. 



65 



