42 .THE MAMMALS OF ETHIOPIAN AFRICA 



amply sufficient to emphasise the vast distinction between the fauna of Ethiopian 

 Africa and that of not only the Mediterranean countries but of the rest of the 

 world. 



The -nearest relations of the Ethiopian fauna appear to be with the later 

 extinct faunas of India; and there seems a considerable probabilitj^ that the 

 ancestors of many of the types of animals now characteristic of Africa south of 

 the Sahara were immigrants from Hindustan, although, as already mentioned, the 

 elephant group and the hyraxes appear to have originated in Africa itself. 



Madagascar, it may here be mentioned, forms a zoological region by itself, and 

 is therefore discussed in a separate chapter. 



The physical characters of the country vary greatly in different parts of the 

 Ethiopian region. In the southern extremity we have a comparatively small tract 

 with forests of evergreen trees, adjoining which is the desert area of the south-west 

 of the continent. On the east coast, commencing a little north of Mozambique and 

 extending to 2° S. latitude, runs a narrow strip of not very rich tropical forest. 

 The really luxuriant tropical forests of vast extent — the true equatorial forest-zone, 

 and the home of the gorilla, the chimpanzi, the bongo, and the okapi — commence, 

 however, on the coasts of the Cameruns and Liberia and at the mouths of the 

 Congo and Niger, whence they extend eastwards across the heart of the continent 

 to the valleys of the Ituri and the Semliki and the southern border of the Bahr-el- 

 Ghazal province. Kordofan, Abyssinia, and Somaliland form a semi-desert tract 

 of thorn-bushes. The greater portion of the continent, from the Sahara to the 

 Cape, consists, however, of more or less open country — typified by the veldt of the 

 Transvaal — forming the largest extent of this type of country on the globe. 



Of the West African primeval forest, the Loango coast affords a typical 

 example ; this forest-tract, in its most fully developed form, covering the heights 

 and slopes of the mountains, the lowlands below, and many of the river-valleys. 

 The beauty of this forest is due, however, not to that great variety of vegetable 

 life so distinctive of the Brazilian forests, but to the enormous numbers of a few 

 kinds of gigantic trees, which communicate to the forest an astonishing uniformity, 

 and form a kind of green vaulted roof, supported by innumerable towering stems 

 70 feet or more in height. Of these lofty columns, some are thick, straight, and 

 cylindrical, without branches, while others are bent, gnarled, and much branched, 

 terminating in loose masses of foliage, in many places intertwined by luxuriant 

 creepers. Through the leafy roof the sun's rays cast quivering golden gleams into 

 the subdued light, and brighten the greys and browns which form the prevailing 

 tints. 



Evergreen trees, with their tops intermingling, form the bulk of this mighty 

 forest ; but above the leafy roof rise giant deciduous trees which do not display 

 their branching tops till at a height of 100 or 150 feet. The stems are mostly bare, 

 parasitic plants being conspicuous by their absence, while even mosses are rare, and 

 of underwood there is scarcely any. On the ground the fallen branches decay 

 embedded in dry leaves ; but where some forest-giant in its fall has made a gap in 

 the leafy roof through which the daylight enters, young saplings appear and 

 struggle upwards with the lower forms of plant-life already growing on the spot. 



The East African forest, on the other hand, is chiefly confined to the mountain- 



