218 BARTH ON SOCIETY IN NORTHERN CENTRAL AFRICA. [May 10, 1858. 
a small population exists. There are numerous other regions which 
are covered with isolated sand hills. Over the whole of the Sahara 
the temperature ranges between the extraordinarily wide limits of 
80° Fahr., between maximum and minimum. 
The fertile districts south of the Sahara are by no means so 
monotonous as they are usually considered to be. Bornu is cer- 
tainly flat; it is alluvial, like the plain of the Ganges or of the 
Indus, but the countries on either side of it contain mountains of 
5000 or 6000 feet. There is also a vast mountainous region which 
feeds the sources of the Senegal, Gambia, and Niger, of which we 
have no positive knowledge. 
The population of North Africa appears to have been fed by 
three streams. One stream from Syria to the far west, and thence 
thrown back by the Atlantic ; another supervening stream, that of 
the Berber or Tuarick race, also from the East, and afterwards 
thrown Southwards into the desert, where it still preponderates 
in excess ; and, thirdly, one from Arabia, through Sennaar, that 
has met the former streams and incorporated itself with them 
between the 5th and 15th degrees of North latitude. Great stress 
is laid upon the fact that nearly all the tribes contain two funda- 
mentally distinct races, the black and the red. 
A condensed description is given of the intellectual and national 
characteristics of the great North African races, namely, the Berber, 
Mandingoe, Fulbe (Fellatah), Hausa, Kanuri (or Bornu)., Tebu 
(Tibboo), Yoruba Nufe, Dahomey and Ashanti, Tombo Mosi, Bag- 
hirmi, Wadai, Darfur. The most important of these, in regard to 
European commerce, are the Berbers, who form a connecting 
link between numerous and distant races ; the Fulbe, because of 
their importance along the Niger; the Hausa, for their distribution 
throughout North Central Africa, their liveliness and intelligence; 
and the Yoruba Nufe, on account of the position of their country by 
the unhealthy districts of the mouths of the Niger, and for their 
industry and capacity. Little is known, even by hearsay, of the 
Pagan nations south of those that are mentioned in the above list. 
We hear of Banda and of Andoma ; Batta is now broken up. 
The density of population, in each portion of North Africa, is 
estimated by Dr. Barth as nearly as his knowledge admits, and is 
recorded in the map. As a general average, taking the populous 
kingdoms and their thinly inhabited border districts together, the 
whole country south of the Sahara is more densely populated than 
either Marocco or Algeria. 
The commercial importance of different districts is next examined, 
and the great commercial centres of ancient and modern times are 
