CHAPTER V. 



GEOGRAPHICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL. 



' To my surprise, the information concerning Zanzibar and the N. E. 



coast of Africa scarcely contains meagre phrases destitute of 



precision.' — (Col. Sykes' Journal, R. G. S., vol. xxiii. 1853.) He for- 

 gets that entering from the coast is like jumping from the street into 

 the window— (R. E. B.) 



Section 1. 



Africa, East and "West — Zanzibar' explained — Menou- 

 thias — Position and Formation — The East African Current — 

 Navigation — Aspect of the Island. 



It is an old remark that Africa, the con- 

 tinent which became an island by the union of 

 the twin seas in the year of grace 1869 P despite 

 her exuberant wealth and her wonderful powers 

 of reproduction, is badly made — a trunk without 

 limbs, a monotonous mass of painful symmetry, 

 wanting opposition and contrast, like the uni- 

 form dark complexion of her sons and of her 

 fauna — a solid body, like her own cocoa-nut, 



