MOUNTAINS OF AFRICA.
No other portion of land on the surface of the globe is so difficult of access as Africa. This is owing to the mountainous character of large portions of its coast line.
"The contrast between the broken European shores and the massive African coasts of the Mediterranean was observed by the earliest geographers; the same continuous, unbroken margin extends along all the sixteen thousand miles of its shore line.
"Guarded by its inhospitable shores, large areas of the interior of the continent are as yet altogether unknown. As a whole, the continent may be regarded as a vast plateau, bordered round by maritime ranges, which form the seaward edges of the interior table-lands."
The ranges of the eastern coast have been so little explored that much has yet to be learned of their character. They extend from the highlands of Abyssinia to the extreme southern point of the continent. The so-called Mountains of the Moon belong to this system. The early explorers erred when they supposed that they stretched across Central Africa from east to west. So great has been the diversity of opinion, that some authors deny the existence of these mountains.
We must consider the interior of Africa as a vast plateau traversed by mountain chains. The only lowland known to lie within the interior is the section about Lake Tchad.
If we look upon the map of Africa, we shall find that the principal mountain systems are known as the Atlas, the reputed Mountains of the Moon, the Snow, Kong, Crystal, Cameroon, and Lupata.
The Atlas Mountains give character to the Barbary States of Morocco and Algeria. The Mountains of the Moon are supposed to run from south to north, parallel to the eastern coast, and to form the southern continuation of the Abyssinian table-land. The Snow Mountains are found in the southern part of the continent, stretching through Cape Colony. The Kong Mountains, though outlined upon the map, according to the celebrated English geographer, Keith Johnston, of the Royal Geographical Society, do not exist. We shall read his descriptions of mountain systems later on. It is well to take more than one view of any subject.
The Crystal and Cameroon Mountains stretch along the western border, though at some distance from the coast line, while the Lupata Mountains are found in the region of the Zambesi. But let us look more minutely at these mountain systems, as described by Mr. Johnston.
Beginning at the extreme northeastern corner of Africa, the land suddenly rises west of Suez, at the southern end of the ship canal, to a height of twenty-six hundred feet. Following this, an abrupt chain of heights extends along the western shores of the Red Sea, till the high edge of the Abyssinian highland is reached, seven thousand to eight thousand feet above sea level.
Farther to the south, on the margin of the plateau, rise snow-capped Kenia, eighteen thousand feet, and Kilimanjaro, eighteen thousand seven hundred feet, between the Indian Ocean and the Great Lake region.
Still farther south rise the Livingstone Mountains, to the height of eleven thousand feet, walling in Lake Nyassa. Farther south still rise the steep and wall-like Drachenberg Mountains, to face the Indian Ocean and to round to the terraces which form Cape Colony.
"Turning the high Cape of Good Hope to the Atlantic margin, the same terraced ascents from the sea coast to the borders of the interior present themselves, all along the western side of the continent, from Cape Colony to the head of the Bight of Biafra.
"Round the Guinea coast, beyond the low delta of the Niger, as far as Cape Verd, the plateau edge approaches the coast only at intervals, but the supposed Kong Mountains do not exist.
"In Morocco, the bordering maritime heights are taken up again by the Atlas range, and are continued along the Mediterranean by the plateau of Barbary, by the ranges called the Black Mountains of Tripoli, and by the heights of Barca, farther east, out again to the delta of the Nile."
Within this border, or fringe, of maritime heights thus traced, we may consider all southern Africa as a vast plateau having a general elevation of about three thousand feet above the sea.
The most prominent interior ranges which rise from this section of the plateau are those called the Mushinga Mountains. These "seem to have an east and west direction, separating the wide basins of the Congo and Zambesi Rivers, and the mountains to the westward of Lakes Albert and Victoria Nyanza and Tanganyika." The latter "form the western edge of the great plateau of eastern equatorial Africa, the center of which is occupied by Unyamwezi, and slope down towards the broad vale of the central Congo."
If we look at the map, "Northern Africa, between the higher southern plateau and the mountains of Barbary on the Mediterranean coast, appears to be generally lower, or at an average elevation of from one thousand to fifteen hundred feet above the sea, though the plateau formation remains the same.
"The prominent lines of height known within it are those which extend from the Marrah Mountains of Dafur, between the Nile basin and that of Lake Tchad, northwestward through the mountain land of Tibesti, in the center of North Africa, to the series of plateaus occupied by the Tuareg tribes south of the plateau of Barbary.
CROSSING THE DESERT.
"A remarkable volcanic belt is traced through the Bight of Biafra in the line of the islands of Annobon, St. Thomas, Princes, and Fernando Po, ten thousand one hundred and ninety feet high, to the high Cameroon Mountains, thirteen thousand seven hundred and sixty feet high, on the coast of the mainland, and thence inland on the same abrupt line to Mounts Alantika and Mendif, midway to Lake Tchad in the interior."
If we could follow the course taken by the early settlers and the missionaries in Africa, we should, in going from the southern coast northward, have to cross three mountain systems and two table lands, before we could reach the great central plateau.
The mountains would present "steep, wall-like faces on the coast side, as if they were raised to prevent all access to the interior; on the other side they descend gradually to the broad, elevated tracts, which retain the name karroos, barren plains, given them by the natives on account of their general appearance and character."
In such a section as Cape Colony, we might expect that the karroos, enclosed by mountains, would become converted into lakes, did we not remember that little rain falls there, and then for only a brief season. "The karroos appear to have been lakes at some very remote period in the history of the earth's surface; for much of the soil is impregnated with salt; shallow salt lakes or marshes are numerous, and beds of sea shells are to be found here and there."
Nature has looked well to the law of cause and effect; for, while the rivers are dry during some portions of the year, after a tempest the waters flow down over the sides of the mountains in torrents. These, in the course of ages, have worn deep cuts, or valley gorges, called kloofs.
The karroos, or elevated tracts, of which we have read, are not like the vast seas of sand of the Sahara. "They consist of shallow beds of rich soil, which want only the fertilizing power of water to render them most productive. The soil of the karroos is clay and sand, resting on blue slate rock. As the streams are dry for three-fourths of the year, the ground becomes during that period as hard as brick. After a few days of rain, grasses and other plants with bulbous roots, spring up everywhere from the hard soil in which they have been encased, and soon the land is covered with bright flowers and verdant pasturage."
Probably no part of the globe presents a more beautiful appearance than these karroos when carpeted by the hand of nature. The description of the flowers of Cape Colony by the author of "Life on an Ostrich Farm" gives one a fair idea of their beauty and variety.