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The Continent of Africa: Mediterranean

MOUNTAINS.-There are five great mountain systems in Africa-those of the Mediterranean basin, comprising the three ranges of the Atlas; those of the W. coast; the parallel chains of the Cape region; the ranges of the E. coast, and the Abyssinian group. There are some portions of the Greater Atlas which reach an elevation of 12,500 ft., but there are no points in the entire range above the line of perpetual In Guinea the Kong mountains nowhere exceed 3500 ft. in height. The snow.

Cameroons rising from the shores of the bight of Biafra, have many lofty summits, some being estimated at 13,000 ft. In the Cape country the mountains are peculiar, stretching in cresent shaped ranges parallel to the S. coast, and increasing in height as they recede from the ocean. On the E. coast the mountains have an elevation of from 4000 to 10,000 ft. Between lat. 3º and 4º, some 200 m. from the Indian Ocean, is Mount Kilimanjaro, 20,065 ft. high, and believed to be the loftiest peak in Africa. Some 200 m. further N. is mount Kenia, with an altitude of 17,000 ft.

DESERTS.-This continent has always been looked upon as pre-eminently a country of deserts. The Sahara occupies nearly all the N. portion of the continent between lat. 15° and 30° N. It has an average width of 1000 m. and an extreme length of 3000 m., covering an area larger than that of the Mediterranean Sea. Shifting sands, rough gravel, and barren rock make up the surface of this desolate waste, while here and there are low hills and extensive plains of salt. The heat is very severe in this region, and rain is almost unknown. During the equinoctial period violent wind storms occur, driving great volumes of sand across the wastes, and doing irreparable injury to caravans which may be caught in their pathway. Oases occur at intervals, especially throughout the Lybian desert, on the E., where the traveller finds water, trees, and refreshing verdure. Some of these oases are 120 m. in length, and from 3 to 5 m. broad. The scourge of the desert is the wind known as the simoon, which burns like fire everything it touches. Observations during the prevalence of this wind have recorded 122º in the shade. Another destroying wind is known as the sirocco, which sweeps from N. Africa over Sicily, S. Italy, and Syria. Withering N.-W. winds also occasionally visit Natal, in S.-E. Africa, and the Cape of Good Hope.