arinds, banānas, yams, melons, and pine-apples; with many other plants native to warm regions.

Adansonia is also called the sour-gourd, monkeys-bread, and calabashtree. It is the largest of the vegetable kingdom. The stem rises not above 15 feet, but its circumference is 70 or 80; and the branches shoot out horizontally for 60 feet, and then bend to the ground. The tree is named in honour of Mon. Adanson, who has given a description of it.

SECTION V.

ANIMALS NATIVE TO AFRICA.

animals.

Among the most characteristic animals of What its Africa may be mentioned apes and monkeys; the lion of Barbary and Senegal; the panther, and leopard; hyena, jackal, and racoon. Tigers nowhere occur in this continent.

In the south are numerous species of ante- what in lopes and gazelles; the buffalo, camel, drome- the south. dary, and giraffe; horse, zebra, and quagga; elephant, rhinoceros, walrus, and masked boar.

its birds.

Birds of prey are numerous; the parrot what are family very abundant; together with swallows, cuckoos, nightingales, and quails.

it besides.

Serpents are in great variety; turtles, lizards, what has and chameleons, crocodiles and alligators, are also numerous.

insects.

The locust is the scourge of many districts; what its and, in the interior, there is a venomous fly, whose bite is fatal to domestic animals, though not to man and wild beasts.

It is called Glossina morsitans.

SECTION VI.

INHABITANTS OF AFRICA.

belong to.

The inhabitants of Africa, vaguely estimated What they at 100-millions, belong to the Atlantidæ or Ethiopic race.

Its divisions what.

Describe

They may be classed into seven groups: the Negro, Kafir, Hottentot, Nilotic, Berber, Egyptian, and Semitic.

The Negro Atlantide have, in an exaggerated the Negro. form, a black unctuous skin, woolly hair, projecting jaws, a flat nose, and thick lips.

Describe

the Kafirs.

The Hottentots.

The Nilotics.

Describe

The Kafirs are a modification of the Negro, with jaws less projecting. This group of the Atlantidæ is found in the great table-lands.

The Hottentots are brown, rather than black; their hair grows in tufts; their stature is low; and their language is remarkable for a peculiar click. This class of the human family is the only one which has any anatomical claim to a distinct race.

The Nilot'ic Atlantida occupy the valley of the Nile, such as the Nubians, Abyssinians, &c.

The Berbers inhabit the desert, the ranges of the Berbers the Atlas, and the Canary Isles. They are intermediate between the negro and the Arab.

The Egyp

The Egyptian Atlantida, represented by the tians who. modern Copts, are a mixture of the Berbers and Assyrians.

Who the
Semitics.

The religi

Lastly, the Semitic Atlantida, which include the Syrians, Carthaginians, Ethiopians, Arabs, and Jews. They are light-complexioned, with elongated skulls, profile straight and prominent, lips thin, and spare body.

According to Blumenbach's sub-division of the families of man, these last would be ranked under the Caucasian race, the other six groups under the Ethiopic.

SECTION VII.

RELIGION OF THE AFRICANS.

All along the northern and western coasts, ons what. and indeed wherever else the Moors and Arabs

prevail, the professed religion is Mahometanism, but the injunctions of the prophet are held, for the most part, very loosely in Africa.

The Egyptians and Abyssinians observe a The Egypcorrupted form of Christianity.

tians what.

Negroes.

The Negro tribes are corrupted by that lowest what of form of superstition, called Fetish-ism, from fetish, an idol. This is an idol-worship of a very degraded character, and in some tribes debased even by the practice of human sacrifices.

CHAPTER VII.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NORTH
AMERICA.

America.

North America has an area of 7 millions of Size of N. square miles, and its coast line is equal to the circumference of the whole globe.

divide it.

Physically it may be divided into four re- How subgions: the Pacific belt, the mountain region, the central plains, and the Atlantic sea-board.

SECTION I.

THE FOUR REGIONS OF NORTH AMERICA. § 1. THE PACIFIC BELT.

The Pacific belt lies between the Pacific where lies coast and the Rocky Mountains.

this belt.

character.

The southern part of this belt, with the what its exception of New California, consists of sandy and rocky tracts; the rest, of rich pastures and fine forests.

What its climate.

Consists of what.

What belonging to.

The Prai

All this region enjoys a humid and temperate climate. The prevailing winds are from the Pacific, which impinge against the opposing mountains, and deposit their moisture on the windward slopes.

§ 2. THE MOUNTAIN REGION.

The mountain region of the west consists of four or five parallel chains of mountains, with elevated valleys and table-lands between.

These parallel chains are parts of the system of the Rocky Mountains, which consists of several ranges, and contain the only active volcanoes of the whole continent.

§ 3. THE CENTRAL PLAINS OR PRAIRIES. The prairies, termed the Far West, stretch ries where from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson's Bay, and from the Rocky Mountains to the Allegǎnies.

Whattheir character.

This vast region, almost as large as the whole of Europe, is for the most part so flat and uniform, it is impossible to resist the conviction that it was once covered with water. How sub- It may be subdivided into three parts: The divide it. East, called the healthy prairies; the West, called the barrens; and the central, called the

the E. pt.

savannahs.

Describe ¶ The EASTERN part, called the healthy prairies, is extremely fertile and well wooded. Here too grow with great luxuriance bushes of hazel and furze, small sassafras shrubs, grapevines, and an infinite variety of flowers.

Describe

its surface.

The surface is for the most part wavy, or undulating into gentle heights and dales;

hence this part of the plain has received the appellation of the rolling prairies.

Describe

The trees here are remarkable for the gran- its trees. deur of their form and size; and as their trunks tower a great height without branches, they look like pillars in some enormous cathedral.

mals here.

Here ranges the buffalo in enormous herds; What anihere browses the wap'iti, the most gigantic of the deer tribe; and here roams the grizzly bear, which feeds chiefly upon vegetables.

the W.pt.

The WEST part, or the barrens, consists of Describe sandy deserts almost wholly sterile; the only vegetation being a long coarse grass, with occasionally a clump of wild underwood.

son what.

The reason of this sterility is that the moist The reawinds part with their humidity before they cross over the Rocky Mountains; so that the belt of land lying to the west of that range is a fertile garden, while that to the leeward is a barren desert.

rate this.

In these barrens the traveller may roam for Corrobodays and days without seeing a single object to break the monotony of the sea-like level.

the rest.

The CENTRAL, and by far the most extensive Describe portion of this vast region, consists of what are termed savannahs.

markable.

These prairies are the scene of inexhaustible Why refertility. Here grow the kal'mia, azālea, and rhododendron, with other flowers of brilliant hues and gigantic magnitude.

found here.

This part of North America is the site of What else two of the largest river-systems in the world; that of the Mississippi, with its affluents, and that of the St. Lawrence, with its lakes.