THE COAST RANGE. 



69 



red-yellow and dark brown, with oxide of iron ; 

 the soil, as usual in Western Intertropical Africa, 

 is a ' terrier rouge,' as Senegal was called by the 

 Prench of the 17th century, a red ochreous clay, 

 and bits of quartz lie scattered over the surface. 

 Beyond it are detached hills of gneiss and grey 

 and rufous granite : the latter is so micareotis that 

 the Baloch firmly believe it to contain gold. 



Inland of Mombasah the Rabai Range is a 

 mere ridge, with a gentler counter- slope land- 

 wards, declining 150 to 200 feet, not, as such mari- 

 time formations usually are, the rampart of an 

 inland plateau. This unusual disposition pro- 

 bably gave rise to the novel idea — instruments 

 were not used — that the interior falls to, and even 

 below, sea-level, thus forming a depression, 

 bounded north and south by rapid rivers, the Adi 

 and the Panga-ni. The chine is broken by deep 

 ravines, which during the rains pour heavy tor- 

 rents into the sea-arms at their base : the people 

 might make tanks and reservoirs by draining the 

 smaller clefts, but they prefer thirst and famine 

 to sweating their brows. Though exposed to the 

 blighting salt breeze, the land wants nothing but 

 water, and, this given, no man need ' tread upon 

 his neighbour's toes.' Arecas and cocoas, bushy 

 mangoes and small custard-apples, the guava and 



