NATURAL FEATURES OF AFRICA. 15 



the idea of their being the bed of an ancient ocean. This 

 is not the place to enter into a tpeculation on the formation 

 of the earth. That every part of its surface lay once be- 

 neath tlie waters is sufficiently apparent; but there is at 

 least no historical proof that Africa emerged later than 

 other continents. The earliest records represent her deserts 

 to have been as extensive as they are in our days, and to 

 have pressed equally close upon the cultivated belt along 

 the northern coast. In general, all regions between the 

 tropics, when not copiously watered, moulder into sand, al- 

 ternating with a hard and impenetrable stratum of clay.. 

 The central wastes of Asia, those of Arabia and of Sindetic 

 Hindostan, though inferior to those of Africa, are yet of si- 

 milar character, and of immense extent. 



In order to obviate the extreme effects of the tropical sun, 

 which produces 3. desolation so dreadful, Nature has pro- 

 I'ided suitable remedies. Every country under this latitude 

 has its rainy season, when, amid the blaze of lightnin2"s and 

 the noise of thunders rending the sky, heaven seems to open 

 all her windows to pour an unbroken flood upon the earth. 

 The ground is covered as with a deluge, and the dry beds 

 of the rivulets are converted into torrents ; yet so intense 

 are the sun's rays, that the moisture thus lavished upon the 

 surface is quickly dried up. Great rivers, which, swollen 

 by the rains, overflow their banks and lay the surrounding 

 country under water, or at least atford the means of artifi- 

 cial inundation, are the principal source of that luxuriant 

 fertility, that mighty growth of vegetable forms, which sin- 

 gularly characterize the tropical climates. It is to the 

 WJi; .^s which descend from the lofty precipices and eternal 

 snows of the Himmaleh, that the plains of Hindostan and 

 China owe their amazing fruitfulness. Africa, too, has 

 elevated mountain-chains, which give rise to several rivers 

 of great magnitude and most fertilizing influence. Atlas, 

 aioag its northern border, presents even in so hot a climate 

 piafccles wrapped in everlasting snow. Still more extensive 

 is that central range, which, amid its various local names, 

 is most generally known under the poetical appellation of 

 " The Mountains of the Moon." Yet these chains, besides 

 being not altogether so gigantic as those of the other con- 

 tinents, labour under the peculiar disadvantage of extend- 

 ing across the breadth only of Africa. The Andes and the 



