NATURAL FEATURES OF AFRICA. 19 



mous tufks, can oversei or sink a loaded canoe. But the 

 most dreaded of all the inhabitants of the African rivers is 

 the crocodile, the largest and fiercest of the lizard tribe. He 

 lies like a log upon the waters watching for his prey, at- 

 tacking men, and even the strongest animals, which, how- 

 ever, engage with him m obstinate and deadly encounters. 



We have not yet done with all the monstrous and prodi- 

 gious forms which Africa generates. She swarms with the 

 serpent brood, which spread terror, some by their deadly 

 poison, others by their mere bulk and strength. In this last 

 respect the African serpents have struck the world with 

 amazement ; ancient history records that whole provinces 

 ■were overrun by them, and that one, after disputing the 

 passage of a river with a Roman army, was destroyed only 

 by the use of a battering engine. 



Emerging trom these dank regions, where the earth, un- 

 der the united influence of heat and moisture, teems with 

 such a noxious superabundance of life, we approach the 

 Desert. Here a change takes place equally singular and 

 pleasing as in the vegetable world. Only Ught, airy, and 

 fantastic forms trip along the sandy border ; creatures in- 

 nocent, gentle, and beautiful, — the antelope of twenty dif- 

 ferent species, all swift, with bright eyes, erect, and usually 

 elegant figures, preying neither on men nor animals, but 

 pursued by all on account of the delicate food which they 

 aflTord. Here, too, roams the zebra, with its finely-striped 

 skin wrapped around it like a robe of rich cloth ; and the 

 camelopard, the tallest and most remarkable of animal 

 forms, with its long fore-legs and high-stretching neck of 

 singular and fantastic beauty, crops the leaves of the African 

 forest. Though a rare species, he is seen occasionally 

 straying over a great proportion of that continent. 



Nature, sporting as it would seem in the production of 

 extraordinary objects, has filled Africa with a wonderful 

 inuj|j|ude of those animals wftich bear the closest alliance 

 toi^^k human form divine." The orang-outang appears to 

 conMiute the link between man and the lower orders of 

 living things. Standing erect, without a tail, with flat 

 face, and arms of not greatly disproportioned length, it 

 displays in every particular a deformed resemblance to the 

 lord of the creation. It seems even to make a nearer ap- 

 proach than any other animal to the exercise of reason. It 



