THE LUNAR MOUNTAINS. 



179 



Africa. The vast limestone band which extends from 

 the banks of the Burramputra to those of the Tagus 

 appears to be prolonged as far south as the Eastern 

 Horn, and near the equator to give place to sand- 

 stone formations. The line is not, however, as might 

 be expected from analogy with the Himalayan, a 

 continuous unbroken chain ; it consists of insulated 

 mountains, apparently volcanic, rising from elevated 

 plains, and sometimes connected by barren and broken 

 ridges. The south-eastern threshold of the Lunar Cor- 

 dillera is the highland region of Usumbara, which may 

 attain the height of 3000 or 4000 feet above sea-level. 

 It leads by a succession of mountain and valley to 

 Chhaga, whose apex is the " ./Ethiopian Olympus," 

 Kilima-Ngao. From this corner-pillar the line trends 

 westward, and the route to Burkene passes along the 

 base of the principal elevations, Doengo Engai and 

 Endia Siriani. Beyond Burkene lies the Nyanza Lake, 

 in a huge gap which, breaking the continuity of the 

 line, drains the regions westward of Kilima-Ngao, 

 whilst those to the eastward, the Pangani and other 

 similar streams, discharge their waters to the south- 

 east into the Indian Ocean. The kingdom of Karagwah 

 prolongs the line to Urundi, upon the Tanganyika 

 Lake, where the south-western spurs of the Lunar 

 Mountains form a high continuous belt. Mr. Petherick, 

 of Khartum, travelling twenty-five marches, each of 

 twenty miles (?), in a south- south-western and due- 

 southerly direction from the Bahr el Ghazal, found a 

 granitic ridge rising, he supposes 2000 to 2500 feet 

 above the plain, near the equator, and lying nearly 

 upon the same parallel of latitude, and in about 27° E. 

 long. Beyond that point the land is still unexplored. 

 Thence the mountains may sink into the great Depres- 



N 2 



