58 Guyot on Carl Bitter. 



shore. It is, therefore, in that order that he describes the 

 various parts of such a connected mass of land. Beginning 

 with the central highland, continuing by its terraces and 

 lowlands, he terminates by the peninsular appendages and 

 the islands which belong to it. A first bird's-eye view, traced 

 with master-hand, gives the general features, the plan of 

 structure, as it were, of the continent, and indicates the 

 arrangements and the relations of all its parts. Then en- 

 tering upon the detailed description, and proceeding from the 

 cold and less favored regions to the warmer and richer climes, 

 he characterizes every natural division, treats of its physical 

 condition, of its people, of its present and historical functions, 

 and usually terminates by a retrospective view, in which he 

 gives to the mind, enriched by the specific knowledge acquired, 

 a still more complete and precise view of the whole organism 

 and of its distinctive characteristics. 



A rapid view of the application of this method of descrip 

 tion to the continents of Africa and Asia, may substantiate 

 this short statement, and serve as a key to the arrangement 

 of the matters contained in the " Erdkunde," which appears 

 to many rather intricated, perhaps because unusual. The first 

 book, Africa, contains four divisions, Abtheilungen : High 

 Africa, or the main table-land ; the transition forms to the 

 lowlands, with their terraces and their water-courses descend- 

 ing from the highland ; the isolated plateaux of the Atlas and 

 of Barca, and the lowland of North Africa, or the Sahara. 



The large divisions are subdivided into sections and again into 

 chapters (Abschnitte and Kapitel), which equally correspond 

 to so many physical regions, but of less extent and importance. 

 In the first division, which treats of the central highland, the 

 first section is devoted to the South margin, and its terraces 

 descending towards the Cape of Good Hope, with three chapters 

 describing the high table-land of the Orange River and its 

 race of men ; the middle terrace of the Karroos ; the lower ter- 

 race or the shore region. The second section comprises the 

 Eastern border of the highlands and its terraces down to the 

 shores of the Indian Ocean, with the two chapters treating of 

 the Kafir coast, and of the coast of Sofala and Mozambique. 

 In the third section we are led to the North margin of 

 High Africa, in which we find, in four chapters, the descrip- 

 tion of the high terrace of Kaffa and Narea, of the table-land 

 of Abyssinia in general, the plateau of Abyssinia proper, and 

 the terraces which descend from that Alpine land towards the 

 sea and the lowland of North Africa. The fourth section com- 



