176 THE CENTRAL AFRICAN GRASS REGION. 



to corroborate the information furnished by a perusal of 

 the works of previous travellers, which goes far, when 

 coupled with this new discovery, to establish the fact 

 that a great and almost unbroken zone of forest country 

 extends, as we have stated, more or less continuously, 

 right across the central portion of the African con- 

 tinent. The occurrence of open grassy plains, at some 

 points of the interior highlands, as reported by Mr. 

 Stanley and others, is only what might be expected, 

 when we consider the great elevation of the land 

 above sea-level, and the variations of soil, sure to 

 occur in so vast an extent of territory. So far as 

 can be judged from our present sources of information, 

 however, it seems probable that the forest again extends 

 far, both to the northward and southward, of these 

 plains; but of course the whole of it is probably not 

 altogether so dense in its character as that passed 

 through by Mr. Stanley, upon the upper waters of 

 the Congo. 



As we approach the region of intermittent rains, 

 open spaces may be expected to become more frequent ; 

 while stretches of " grass forest," consisting of bamboos 

 and other gigantic arborescent grasses, will be found 

 alternating with the heavier forests. 



Those who may have honoured us with an attentive 

 perusal of the preceding portions of this section, will 

 doubtless have observed that we have extended the 

 limit of the equatorial forest zone considerably beyond 

 that adopted by Mr. Wallace, who has fixed it at 

 i2 x /2 degrees north and south of the equator;* whilst 

 we have followed what is known as "Meyen's division" 

 of 15 because wherever there is a hot, moist atmo- 



* Tropical Nature, p. 3. 



