AFRICA                                                              23

the low coast extends a considerable distance inland.

Rivers. The great rivers of Africa are the Nile, Congo, Niger, Zambezi and Orange. The Nile has its rise in the region drained by the lakes near the equator, the Victoria Nyanza, the Albert Nyanza and the Albert Edward Nyanza. It flows through Egypt to the Mediterranean and has a drainage area of more than 1,000,-000 square miles. The, Zambezi flows through southeast Africa to the Indian Ocean with a drainage area of 514,000 square miles. The sources of the Congo are in the region of Lakes Tanganyika and Nyasa, and after a course of more than 3,000 miles it empties into the Atlantic. It has numerous important tributaries and S^drainage area of more than 1,400,000 square miles. The Niger rises in the mountains of Senegambia, and after flowing east, southeast and south through a course of more than 2,600 miles reaches the Atlantic _by several mouths, separated by an extreme distance of 200 miles. Other rivers in this region are the Senegal and the Gambia, which flow into the Atlantic. The Orange River flows through South Africa from near the east coast into the Atlantic.

In eastern Africa between 5° north and 150 south latitude are found the great lakes of the continent, Victoria and Albert Nyanza, Tanganyika, Albert Edward Nyanza ana Bangweolo. These are the largest bodies of fresh water on the globe after the great lakes of North America.

Climate. The climate of Africa is less marked by extremes than that of any other continent. It vs the hottest of all. This is because Africa is crossed near the center by the equator and lies almost wholly within the tropics. The greatest heat is found in the desert region north of the equator. In the equatorial belt, both north and south, rain is abundant and vegetation very luxuriant; dense tropical forests prevail for about ten degrees on either side of the line. Says Livingstone of the forests near Lake Tanganyika: "The sun, though vertical, cannot penetrate them, excepting by sending down at midday thin pencils of rays into the gloom. The rainwater stand? for months in stagnant pools made by the feet of elephants. The climbing plants, from the size of a whipcord to that of a man-of-war's hawser, are so numerous that the ancient path is the only passage."

To the north and^south of the equatorial belt the rainfall' friinishes, and the forest region is succeeded by an open pastoral and agricultural country. This is followed by the rainless regions of the Sahara on the north and the Kalahari Desert on the south, extending beyond the tropics and bordering on the agricultural and pastoral countries of the north and south coasts, which lie entirely in the temperate zone.

AFRICA

The low coast regions of Africa are almost everywhere unhealthy, the Atlantic coast within the tropics being the most fatal region to Europeans and Americans.

Natural Products and Animal Life. Among mineral productions may be mentioned gold, which is found in the rivers of West Africa (whence the name Gold Coast), and in Southern Africa, most abundantly in the Transvaal; diamonds have been found in large numbers in the south; iron, copper, lead, tin and coal are also found. Among plants are the baobab, the date palm (important as a food-plant in the north), the doum palm, the oil palm, the wax palm, the shea-butter tree, trees yielding caoutchouc, the papyrus, the castor-oil plant, indigo, the coffee plant, etc. Among cultivated plants are wheat, corn, millet and other grains, cotton, coffee, cassava, ground nut, yam, banana, tobacco, various fruits, etc. Among the most characteristic African animals are the lion, hyena, jackal, gorilla, chimpanzee, baboon, African elephant (never domesticated, yielding much ivory to trade), hippopotamus, rhinoceros, giraffe, zebra, quagga, antelopes in great variety and immense numbers. Among birds are the ostrich, the secretary bird or serpent-eater, the honey-guide cuckoo, sacred ibis, guinea fowl. The reptiles include the crocodile, chameleon and serpents of various kinds, some of them venomous. Among insects are locusts, scorpions, the tsetse fly, whose bite is so fatal to cattle, and white ants.

Races. The great races of which the population of Africa consists are the Ham-ites, the Semitic, the Negroes and the Bantus. To the Semitic stock belong the Arabs, who form a considerable portion of the population in Egypt and along the north coast, while a portion of the inhabitants of Abyssinia are of the same race (though the blood is considerably mixed). The Hamites are represented by the Copts of Egypt, the Berbers, Kabyles, etc., of northern Africa, and the Somali, Danakil, etc. of East Africa. The Negro races occupy a vast territory in the Sudan and Central Africa, while the Bantus occupy the greater part of Southern Africa from a short distance north of the equator, and include the Kaffirs, Bechuanas, Swahili and allied races. In the extreme southwest are the Hottentots and Bushmen (the latter a dwarfish race), distinct from the other races as well as, probably, from each other. Equatorial Africa also has pygmies. In Madagascar there is a large Malay element.

Political Divisions. The greater part of the continent has been apportioned among European powers as colonies, protectorates or spheres of influence. Among states still more or less independent are Morocco, Abyssinia, Liberia, Egypt and Congo Free State. The principal divisions owned or controlled by European powers are as follows;