696 THE AFRICAN SUMMITS. 



not all, of a volcanic character, and the same generalization is true 

 of the beautiful Polynesian archipelagos : 



" Summer-isles of Eden lying in dark purple spheres of sea." 



Mount Ophir, in Sumatra, is 13,840 feet high ; Stamat, in Java, 

 12,300 feet; Indiapura, in Sumatra, 12,140 feet; Tomboro, in the 

 island of Sumbawa, 7600 feet; and Kilauea, in the Sandwich Islands, 

 3970 feet. Kina-balu, in Borneo, is a magnificent mass, 13,968 

 feet in height. " Its grand precipices," says a traveller,* " its polished 

 granite surfaces glittering under the bright tropical rays, the dashing 

 cascades, which fall from so great a height as to dissolve in spray 

 before being lost in the dark valleys below, have a magical effect 

 upon the imagination." 



My rapid survey of the mountain-systems of the globe now brings 

 both writer and reader to the African Continent, which contains, 

 however, an unusually large proportion of plain and low level. The 

 northern mountain-ranges, which extend from east to west parallel to 

 the Mediterranean, are known to geographers under the general 

 appellation of Mount Atlas, whose culminating point occurs in the 

 peak of Miltoin, 11,400 feet, to the south-east of the city of 

 Morocco. 



In the north-eastern part of the continent lie the Mountains of 

 Abyssinia, the highest pinnacle being that of Geesh, which towers at 

 an elevation of 15,000 feet above the sea. Many other summits are 

 also crowned with "snows eternal," feeding a succession of streams 

 which pour their waters into the White Nile. 



Detached masses and mountain-groups spread along the western 

 coast, between the 12th and 18th parallels of north and south 

 latitude respectively. To the north of the Equator lie the Kong 

 Mountains ; and near the coast of the Bight of Biafra rises the semi- 

 extinct volcano of the Camaroons, 13,129 feet high. This elevation 

 is far exceeded by that of the colossal summits, which on the eastern 

 * Spencer St. John. " Life in the Forests of the Far East " (London. 1863). 



