174 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



Everywhere the newly-awakened life arises in strength. The 

 thirsty earth eagerly sucks in the moisture which has been bestowed 

 upon her; but after a few days the heavens again open their flood- 

 gates and a fresh supply of rain awakens any germs which are still 

 slumbering. A second thunder-storm causes the buds to burst on 

 all the trees which shed their leaves, and liberates the sprouting 

 grasses from the ground. A third downpour of rain calls forth 

 blossoms and flowers, and clothes the whole land in luxuriant 

 green. Magical as spring's coming is the subsequent rush of life. 

 What with us requires a month here completes its life-cycle in a 

 week; what develops but slowly in temperate zones here unfolds 

 itself in days and hours. 



But within a few weeks the spring is once more past; the hardly 

 distinguishable summer follows in the annual pageant; and is as 

 rapidly succeeded by the short autumn; so that, strictly speaking, 

 all three — spring, summer, and autumn — make but one season. 

 Again the destructive winter is at the doors, and prevents that 

 continuous germinating, growing, and flourishing which is possible 

 in other equatorial countries where the water-supply is more 

 abundant. Here, however, the rainfall is at least sufiicient to keep 

 the barren desert from gaining the mastery, and to spread a more 

 or less rich carpet of vegetation over the ground — in other words) to 

 produce steppe-land instead of desert. 



I use the word steppe to designate those lands peculiar to the 

 interior of Africa which the Arabs call "Chala", which means 

 "lands bearing fresh green plants". It is true that the chala is as 

 little like the steppes of South Russia and Central Asia as the 

 prairies of North America, or the pampas or llanos of South 

 America, yet in certain important respects it does resemble the first- 

 named, so that I need scarcely make any excuse for preferring a 

 known to an unknown term. The steppe extends over the whole 

 interior of Africa, from the Sahara to the Karroo," from east coast 

 to west, surrounding all the high mountains and enclosing all the 

 extensive virgin forests which stretch on their slopes, or occupy in 

 greater luxuriance the low grounds where water is plentiful. In 

 fact it includes all the lands in the heart of Africa, beginning a few 



