AFRICA AND ITS ANIMALS 
Ir we take a map of the world, and, after tracing upon a 
sheet of thin paper the outline of the British Islands, cut 
out the tracing and lay it upon India, we shall find that it 
covers a mere patch of that great area. Repeating the same 
process with India, and placing the tracing thus obtained 
on Africa in such a manner that the sharp angle on the 
tracing formed by Assam overlies the projecting point of 
Somaliland, which it almost exactly covers, it will be found 
that the whole area embraced in the tracing occupies only 
a small patch in the middle of the eastern side of the Dark 
Continent. As a matter of fact, the patch thus marked 
out ends in a blunt point northwardly some distance above 
Khartum, thence it runs south to the neighbourhood of the 
Victoria Nyanza, from which district it rapidly narrows to 
terminate in a sharp point a little distance to the southward 
of Zanzibar. Allowing some slight overlaps, no less than 
six Indias can indeed be traced on the map of Africa ; 
and as these leave between them and on their margins 
considerable spaces of the country still uncovered, it would 
be but a moderate estimate to say that Africa includes at 
least seven times the area of British India. Some idea, 
especially to those familiar with our vast Indian dominions, 
may in this manner be most readily gained of the huge 
extent of the African continent. 
Having made these comparisons of the actual size of the 
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