NA TURE 



305 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1912. 



THE CLIMATE OF AFRICA. 



The Climate of the Continent of Africa. By Alex- 

 ander Knox. Pp. xiv + 552 + 13 maps. (Cambridge 

 University Press, 1911.) Price 21s. net. 



SUCH a work as this has not only become highly 

 necessary, but should be in great demand 

 amongst Governments, mining and commercial com- 

 panies trading in Africa, missionary societies, and all 

 individuals who intend to visit Africa for any length 

 of time, or to settle in any part of that continent for 

 purposes of health, science, education, or commercial 

 gain. It is to be regretted therefore that the book 

 on its first appearance should contain some needless 

 errors and be chargeable with not a few omissions. 

 And in the hope that some indication of these may 

 be of use in the preparation of a second edition, it may 

 not be thought ungracious on the part of the reviewer 

 to point them out. 



First, in regard to the spelling of African names. 

 Nothing is more irritating to those who believe in the 

 desirability of simplifying and standardising the ortho- 

 graphy of place and tribal names in all those regions 

 of the world (in other words, all aboriginal America 

 and Oceania, and nearly the whole of Africa and 

 Asia) than attempts on the part of authors to avoid 

 conforming with the standard spelling of the Royal 

 Geographical Society, the Indian Government, the 

 Royal Asiatic Society, the African Society, and most 

 Government departments and learned institutions which 

 are qualified to pronounce an opinion on this subject, 

 rind to promulgate a fixed spelling for all parts of 

 the world where no standard has hitherto existed. 

 In some cases this official spelling, though logical as 

 to the use of consonants and vowels, may not have 

 been quite consistent with the original and most wide- 

 spread native pronunciation of the name. For 

 example, there is no doubt but that the late explorer. 

 Sir Henry Stanley, had a defective hearing (the 

 reviewer speaks from much personal know- 

 ledge), and not infrequently wrote down an 

 incorrect version of the native name. No 

 traveller subsequent to Stanley has been able to 

 hear any native of eastern equatorial Africa say 

 "Ruwenzori." Perhaps the nearest form to Stanley's 

 rendering is Runsoro or Runsori (a considerable list 

 fif native names of this mountain mass is given in the 

 reviewer's book on the Uganda Protectorate and in 

 the monumental works published in connection with 

 the Duke of the Abruzzi's expedition). But, how- 

 ever that may be, Ruwenzori has long been the form 

 adopted by all Governments and all geographers of 

 any note. Why, therefore, in the work under review 

 should the author introduce a meaningless name of 

 his own— Ru Nzori? There is no linguistic justifica- 

 tion for this variant, and in looking through the index 

 it is a matter of inconvenience to find the familiar 

 name Ruwenzori absent. 



In regard to the place-name Quelimane. Both the 

 author and several geographical societies and map- 

 makers are at fault. The author spells it phonetic- 

 NO. 2201, VOL. 88] 



ally as Kilimane, as though it was a native name. 

 Other authorities give it as Quilimane. Neither is 

 correct. As a matter of fact, the oflficial Portuguese 

 name is Quelimane, which is an ancient corruption 

 of a Swahili-Arab word, Kalimani, meaning "inter- 

 preter." This was the nickname of some person who 

 met the ships of Vasco da Gama or other Portuguese 

 pioneers, and served as intermediary between them 

 and the natives. If we are to continue to use the 

 place-names " Mozambique " and " Inhambane," we 

 have no recourse but to go on citing the name of this 

 river mouth on the north of the Zambezi delta as 

 Quelimane. If Mr. Knox desires that his work shall 

 be perfect from the point of view of conformity with 

 the best opinion in the rendering of African names 

 in any further edition of the work, the spelling requires 

 careful revision. The author points out his own spell- 

 ing of Morocco as Marocco, as though it were prefer- 

 able to the commonly accepted term. As the phonetic 

 foundation for this name is really Marakesh, we do 

 not seem to gain much by departing from the widely 

 accepted English form, Morocco, unless we go the 

 whole hog and call the land of the Moors either 

 Marakesh or Maghrib-al-Aksa. 



In the same way, appendix i, a glossary of the 

 principal vegetable productions of Africa, except 

 timber trees, by Miss Mary S. Knox, also requires 

 revision and a slight extension to be perfectly useful 

 and unimpeachable. Under the heading of " Acacias " 

 the information is too vague; no species of capsicum 

 (chillies) is native to Egypt, the whole of this genus 

 being of American origin. Under the head of 

 "Coffee" nothing is said about the very important 

 species, Coffea liberiensis ; and the assumption that 

 there is but one species indigenous to or cultivated 

 throughout tropical Africa, Coffea arahica, is quite 

 incorrect and out of date. A reference to the works 

 of Auguste Chevalier (amongst others) would enable 

 Miss Knox to give much fuller and more useful in- 

 formation regarding the various species of coffee indi- 

 genous to tropical Africa and cultivated therein. It 

 would be invidious to go on pointing out the errors in 

 this appendix, but there are others. Yet it would be 

 comparatively easy to make the whole appendix abso- 

 lutely accurate and of great interest and importance 

 in correlation with the main part of the book dealing 

 with the African climate. 



It is incorrect to say that the indigenous rubber of 

 the Uganda Protectorate is "of poor quality." On 

 the contrary, this protectorate is noteworthy for con- 

 taining a large number of Funtumia elastica trees, 

 which actually produce rubber attaining the highest 

 value, when properly prepared, of any samples, even 

 exceeding occasionally in price the best Para. 

 Although a reference is made to the climate of Liberia 

 (a region which, though small in extent, is very pecu- 

 liar in flora and fauna — singularly so in fauna— and 

 represents the culmination in rainfall of any part of 

 real West Africa— as distinguished from Central 

 Africa), the information is incomplete and old in date. 

 Had the author glanced at the work on Liberia by the 

 present reviewer, published in 1906, he would have 

 found later and more complete statistics; and there 

 is still further information in the reports and papers 



