THE GREAT PLATEAU. 271 



table-land ; its sides are built of granite mountains 

 which surround it with a parapet or brim, and which 

 send down rivers on the outside towards the sea, on the 

 inside into the plateau. The outside rivers are brief 

 and swift : the iuside rivers are long and sluggish 

 in their course, winding in all directions, collecting 

 into enormous lakes, and sometimes flowing forth 

 through gaps in the parapet to the Sahara or the 

 sea. 



A table-land is seldom so uniform and smooth as 

 the word denotes. The African plateau is inter- 

 sected by mountain ranges and ravines, juts into 

 volcanic isolated cones, varies much in its climate, its 

 aspect, its productions, and in its altitude above the 

 sea. It may be divided into platforms or river basins 

 which are true geographical provinces, and each of 

 which should be labelled with the names of its ex- 

 plorers. There is the platform of Abyssinia, 

 which belongs to Bruce ; the platform of the 

 White Nile, including the Lakes of Burton (Tan- 

 ganyika), of Speke (Victoria Nyanza), and of Baker 

 (Albert Nyanza) ; the platform of the Zambezi, 

 with its lakes Nyassa and Ngami, discovered by 

 Livingstone, the greatest of African explorers ; the 

 platform of the Congo, including the regions of 

 Western Equatorial Africa, hitherto unexplored ; the 

 platform of South Africa (below 20»S), which enjoys 

 an Australian climate, and also Australian wealth in 

 its treasure-filled mountains and its wool-abounding 

 plains; and lastly the 'platform of the Niger, which 

 deserves a place, as will be shown, in universal history. 

 The discoverers of the Niger in its upper parts are 

 Park, who first saw the Niger, Caillie', and myself : 

 in its central and eastern parts, Laing, who first reached 



