NATURAL FEATURES OF AFRICA. 17 



travelling, and the diligent use of the axe, soon becomes 

 impassable. 



As we approach the confines of the Desert these giants 

 of the wood disappear, and vegetation presents a different 

 and more pleasing aspect. It exhibits now the light and 

 gay form of the acacia, whole forests of which rise amid 

 the sand, distilling those rich gums that afford an important 

 material of African commerce. The lotus, a celebrated and 

 classical shrub, the tamarisk, and other small and elegant 

 trees, afford agreeable and nutritive berries, which constitute 

 the food of several nations. Various flowering shrubs of 

 the most delicate tints, rising in wild and spontaneous beau- 

 ty, embellish the precincts of the waste. Thus the Desert, 

 in its first approaches, and before vegetable life begins to ex- 

 pire, does not assume its sternest character, but wears even 

 a peculiarly pleasing and smiUng aspect. 



The animal world* in Africa changes equally its nature 

 as it passes fi-om one to another of these opposite regions. 

 In those plains which are inundated by the great rivers, it 

 multiplies at an extraordinary rate, and often assumes huge 

 and repulsive forms. Throughout all this continent the wild 

 tribes exist in large and formidable numbers, and there is 

 scarcely a tract which they do not either hold in full posses- 

 sion, or fiercely dispute w^ith man. Even the most densely- 

 peopled countries border on wide forests and wastes, whose 

 savage tenants find their prey occasionally in man himself, 

 as well as in the domestic animals which surround him; 

 and when the scent of human slaughter is wafted on the 

 breeze, bands of hungry r»onsters hasten from every side to 

 the feast of blood. These ferocious creatures hold, indeed, 

 so commanding a position, that the colonist scarcely inakes 

 any attempt to extirpate them, or even to keep down their 

 numbers. He wages against them only a defensive war, 

 and employs his courage and skill chiefly in hunting the ele- 

 ph^^, the antelope, and other peaceful species, by whose 

 spfl^e may be enriched. 



The lion, that king of the desert, that mightiest among 

 the tribes which have the wildernc-ss for their abode, abounds 

 in Africa, and causes all her forests to re-echo his midnight 



* In the present chapter wc allude only to a few of the more conspi- 

 cuous and peculiar characteristics of African zoology. The subject is 

 " of at greater length in a subsequent part of this volume. 

 B2 



