Africa, a grand division of the eastern continent extending toward the southwest. Like South America, it is a large peninsula. It is joined to the Asiatic mainland by the Isthmus of Suez, only eighty-seven miles in width. In outline Africa resembles South America. It tapers to a point at the south. A broad extension north of the equator gives the map a leg of mutton shape easily remembered by the schoolboy. The entire coast is remarkably regular, and may be drawn with easy curves, without a single deep gulf or bay to break the coast line. The entire shore line is 18,400 miles in length. The difference between the actual coast line and the shortest possible coast for the given area is less than that for any other grand division. Madagascar in the Indian Ocean is the only large island. PHYSICAL CONFIGURATION. If we except Australia, Africa has a more regular and even surface than any other grand division. A narrow fringe of low land runs around the coast; but in places, as at Cape Town and elsewhere, even this footing is crowded off into the ocean by precipitous sea walls. In general, the surface of the land is an elevated plateau. The Congo basin divides Africa into two parts. The region of the Sahara on the northwest lies at an elevation seldom, if ever, exceeding 2,000 feet. The rest of Africa seldom sinks below 2,000 feet in altitude. The average altitude of Africa is 4,000 feet. The principal mountain ranges are two. The Atlas Mountains run east and west opposite the Strait of Gibraltar,--greatest height 14,000 feet. The eastern highlands begin with the mountains of Abyssinia and continue with wide gaps southward to the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope. In the Abyssinian region the highest peak is 19,000 feet above the sea. In the south the greatest altitude does not exceed 10,000 feet. Writers speak of a rift valley, a gigantic crack in the surface, occupied for the greater part of its course by the Nile River and the large lakes in which that river has its sources. It is along this valley that the "Cape to Cairo" railway is building. A second rift, parallel to the first named, lies between Abyssinia and the sea. Ancient volcanic cones, one of which is still active at times, may be found in these rifts. LAKES AND RIVERS. Of lakes, the largest are found in the great rift, 2,000 miles from the Mediterranean. The Niger, the Congo, the Nile with its tributaries, and shorter streams, as the Orange and the Senegal, carry nearly all the water of Africa ultimately to the Atlantic Ocean. The sole African river of volume emptying into the Indian Ocean is the Zambezi. TEMPERATURE. Africa lies so evenly balanced on the two sides of the equator that it has less variety of temperature than any other grand division. Traveling from the equator northward or southward the tropical heat indeed moderates, but if we exclude certain elevated regions which, by way of contrast, are delightfully cool, Africa as a whole is decidedly torrid. The variation in rainfall is extreme. The most northerly region, that of the Atlas Mountains, is well watered. The vegetation of this region includes the cork, oak, fig, olive, vine, and small grains. The brilliant flowers of this region make it a paradise for botanists. THE GREAT DESERT. The Sahara is the African end of a large desert region, the greatest in the world, reaching from the Atlantic eastward across Africa and two-thirds of Asia. Save where interrupted by the Nile and by oases, it is a dreary waste of rock and sand. Copious rains on the distant mountains sink into the earth and reappear far out in the desert in the form of springs, around which groves of dense green date palms spring up,--the grateful oases of the traveler. The valley of the Nile with its peculiar vegetation and animals crosses the eastern end of the region. EQUATORIAL AFRICA. The equatorial region from the Gulf of Guinea to the great rift is a region of heavy rains and dense forests. The waters are full of crocodiles and hippopotamuses. The forests are the home of the baboons and manlike apes and huge serpents. The elephant, once abundant, has been all but exterminated for the sake of its ivory tusks. THE PRAIRIE REGION. Extending from the Atlantic eastward to Abyssinia, quite around the forest region, and back to the Atlantic again, like a huge horseshoe, is a savanna or well-watered prairie region. This is the home of the solitary baobab tree and of luxuriant grasses. Giraffes, antelopes, gnus, zebras, and quaggas feed in the open parks. The savanna region is the home of the lion, the leopard, the hyena, and the jackal. Between the savannas and the Sahara is a semi-arid belt which reappears in the eastern angle of Africa and divides South Africa with the savannas. If one were to travel in a straight line south from Algiers to Cape Town, he would pass through shifting scenery. Leaving the shipping in the harbor and the city with its white walls and round-topped mosques, the traveler would journey between fields, orchards, and vineyards and through palm groves, until the blue Mediterranean lay far in the rear and he found himself threading the Atlas Mountains. Once over the slope, the country becomes dryer and the vegetation scantier. At the southern foot, thorny camel's shrubs or acacia bushes grow in clumps, while the scouring wind whirls the sand in eddies between them. Farther south from the mountains all signs of vegetation cease. For a thousand miles the eye would rest on a dreary waste of rocks and drifting sand without sign of life, save now and then a caravan trail marked by the accumulated bones of 2,000 years, and here and there a welcome oasis with its springs and palm groves, and the tents and flocks of the picturesque Arabs. Holding still a southward course across the Tropic of Cancer, the traveler would enter the fringe of an occasional shower from the equatorial regions. Clumps of thorny plants and palms would become more and more numerous until he encountered fruitful, grassy, flowery savannas, with herds of antelopes; then deep, equatorial forests and the majestic river Congo. South of the forests, the savannas again, and another region of stinted vegetation lead to the grassy upland of the Cape region. POPULATION. Roughly speaking, a line drawn from the Atlantic Ocean, along the southern border of the Sahara region, to Abyssinia, then dropping abruptly south to the Indian Ocean, separates the white people from the black. This division into races is based on the profile, the shape of the head, hair, build, language, and aspect, rather than on the complexion. The Berbers, Arabs, Egyptians, Abyssinians, and the coast tribes of Somaliland are of the white race. Immediately south of the Arab country a broad belt of territory, called by the Arabs the country of the Sudan or the blacks, runs westward from Abyssinia to the Atlantic. It is the region in which the Senegambian and Guinea negroes live. This is the region of untold atrocities perpetrated by merciless, marauding Arab chiefs and greedy Caucasian slavers. The ancestors of the negro population of the New World came chiefly from this region. The region immediately on the equator and southward is occupied by various negro tribes known collectively as Bantus. The extreme south-western corner of the continent near Cape Town is the home of the degraded Bushmen and Hottentots. They are classified as black people, but are not negroes. None of the African peoples have shown capacity for holding together in organized governments. The Arabs, Somali, and Abyssinians are not without bravery, but are not natural rulers of themselves or of others. SPHERES OF INFLUENCE. With the exception of Abyssinia, protected by its mountain fastnesses, the Sahara, protected by its sands, and the republic of Liberia, Africa has been seized by foreign nations for the sake of trade. The kingdom of Morocco is nominally independent, but France holds a large part of the Mediterranean coast. Tripoli is held by Turkey. Egypt is nominally subject to Turkey, but is mortgaged to Great Britain and is governed virtually from London. The coasts of the Red Sea, of the Gulf of Aden, and of the Indian Ocean are parceled out among the Italians, Turks, Germans, British, and Portuguese. South Africa, with its farms, grazing lands, ostriches, antelopes, lions, hills, and diamonds, is under the British flag. Equatorial Africa has been placed under European protection in charge of the kingdom of Belgium. With slight exceptions the western coast has been taken over by England, France, Germany, Spain, and Portugal. France is a large African landholder, but, if Egypt be reckoned a virtual British holding, Great Britian owns not only the lion's share of the soil, but of the resources as well. With a total length of 5,000 miles and a width of 4,500 miles, an area of 11,520,000 square miles, a population of 175,000,000, enormous regions of fertile soil, the largest forests in the world, and unsurpassed natural resources, Africa, white and black, does not possess a single native nation worthy of the name. Foreigners-Europeans-are exterminating the game, driving out the natives, building railroads, stocking the ranges, claiming the lakes, laying out cities, and making themselves homes. Like America, Africa bids fair to become the seat of a European civilization. A clearer view of the partition of Africa, African islands included, may be had by comparing the following with a map: Independent- Abyssinia, Morocco, Liberia. Under British Control or Ownership- Ascension Island, Basutoland, Bechuanaland Protectorate, Cape of Good Hope Colony, East Africa Protectorate, Uganda, Zanzibar, Mauritius, Natal, Nyasaland, Orange River Colony, Rhodesia, St. Helena, Seychelles, Somaliland, The Transvaal, Northern Nigeria, Southern Nigeria, Gold Coast Colony, Sierra Leone, Gambia. Under German Control- Togoland, Kamerun, German Southwest Africa, German East Africa. Under French Control- Algeria, French Congo, Madagascar, Comoro Islands, Reunion, French Somali Coast, Sahara, Wadai, Senegal, French Guinea, Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Territories of Senegambia and of the Niger. Under Italian Control- Eritrea, Italian Somaliland. Under Portuguese Control- Cape Verde Islands, Guinea, Prince's and St. Thomas' Islands, Angola, East Africa. Under Spanish Control- Rio de Oro and Adrar, Rio Muni and Cape San Juan, Fernando Po, Annabon, Carosco, Great Elobey, and Little Elobey. Under Turkish Control- Tripoli including Benghazi, Crete. Under Belgian Control- Congo Free State. Under British and Turkish Control- Egypt, Sudan. Livingstone's Travels, Stanley's Through the Dark Continent, and Du Chaillu's volumes are excellent books relating to equatorial and southern Africa. See LIVINGSTONE; STANLEY; SPEKE; ABYSSINIA; UGANDA; EGYPT; ALGERIA; MOROCCO; ZAMBEZI; NILE; NIGER; CONGO; HOTTENTOT; BUSHMEN; SAHARA; LION; ELEPHANT; GIRAFFE; RHINOCEROS; HIPPOPOTAMUS; GORILLA; OSTRICH; PALM; BAOBAB; PIGMY; CAPE TO CAIRO RAILWAY; DIAMONDS; BOERS.