286 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
To this list might almost be added the giraffe, and the Damaliscus genus of 
antelopes, were it not that according to native report the giraffe is found in the 
southern part of the Senga country along the Lower Luangwa river above its 
confluence with the Zambezi, and that Mr. Sharpe believes he has seen tsessebe 
(. Damaliscus ) antelopes a little to the north of the same region. Still here, 
again, the zoological boundaries of this sub-region rather coincide with the 
political because it is well known that certain South African forms do cross the 
Central Zambezi and extend a little distance to the north of its banks, and this 
may, therefore, account for the existence of the giraffe and the tsessebe in the 
Luangwa valley. It is quite certain, however, that the giraffe is found nowhere 
in East Africa south of the Rufiji river and between the Mozambique coast on 
the east and the Angola coast on the west . 1 Neither are the ostrich nor the other 
antelopes and carnivora mentioned above. Yet all these forms, either the same 
or other species closely allied thereto, reappear north of the Rufiji river, or at" 
any rate in Somaliland and the Egyptian Sudan ; some of them even in the 
Western Sudan and in Senegambia. It is very curious that this break should 
occur right across the continent as it cannot be sufficiently explained by any 
reasons of climate or soil. The country is not one dense impenetrable forest 
like parts of the Congo Basin, nor is it a waterless desert. It is dry enough for 
ostriches and yet not too dry for water-loving antelopes. It must be admitted, 
however, that it is probably too moist for the absent animals which are rather 
desert-loving types. 
Taken by itself the British Central Africa sub-region may be divided into 
two districts, at any rate as regards its mammalian fauna—Nyasaland and the 
adjoining countries to the east; and all which lies between the watershed of 
Nyasa and the northern, western, and southern frontiers of the sphere of British 
influence. There is not much difference between the two, but Nyasaland 
probably lacks a few mammalian types such as the Situtunga ( Tragelaphus 
spekei ); the Puku and Lechwe antelopes ( Cobus vardoni and Cobus lechwe), 
and the Cheetah ; on the other hand the western division does not possess the 
grey baboon ( Papio pruinosus); the long-nosed Shrew (Rhynchocyon) ; a number 
of rodents ; the sable antelope, and several birds which are peculiar to the 
mountains of the Shire districts . 2 
1 It reaches to the Ubena country, N.E. of Lake Nyasa. 
2 I should be disposed to divide the African region into two sub-regions and these again into 
certain provinces. They would stand thus : 
(1) The West African sub-region (the forest country of West Africa from the Gambia on the north to 
the Kwanza river on the south, including the coast belt of West Africa and the whole Congo basin as far 
as the west coast of Tanganyika); 
(i a) The Guinea province (Gambia to the Volta river); 
(i b) The Lower Niger Province (Volta river to the Cameroons and the Upper Benue); 
(i c ) The Gaboon province (Cameroons to the Congo mouth and inland to the Congo watershed); 
(i d ) The Congo province (all the Congo basin except in the extreme south); 
(i e) The Angola province (on the coast, the river Loge to Benguela and inland to the Congo 
watershed, but including the extreme Upper Zambezi). 
(2) The Ethiopian sub-region (Tropical Arabia, and all Tropical Africa not included in the West 
African sub-region) : 
(2 a ) The Sudan province (from the Senegambian coast on the west to the frontiers of Abyssinia on 
the east, with the Sahara on the north and the Congo Basin and West African Coast belt on 
the south) ; 
(2 b) The Abyssinian province ; 
(2t) The Arabian province; 
(2 d) The Somaliland province (bounded by Abyssinia, the Egyptian Sudan, the east coast of 
Tanganyika, and the Rufiji river) ; 
(2 e) The British Central African province; and 
(2 f) The South African province (bounded more or less on the north by the Zambezi, and up 
the south-west coast of Africa to the Angola province). 
