and complex relations; the other, in vast areas, and chiefly on farseparated river-plains, has been more productive of isolation and stationary individualism. "What has been wanting to the communities of Asia," it has been well remarked, " is the possibility of actions and reactions upon each other, more intimate, more permanent; it is the possibility of a common life. On the other hand, the smallness of the area, the near neighbourhood, the midland seas thick sown with islands, the permeability of the entire continent-everything conspires to establish between the European nations that community of life and of civilisation which forms one of the most essential and precious characteristics of their social state." It is thus that civilisation in Asia stands still or declines, while in Europe it is ever active and progressive.

Africa.

328. The next great "quarter" of the Old World is that of Africa, having an estimated area of 11,360,000 square miles, or, including Madagascar and the other islands, of 11,855,000. It lies between the parallels of 37° N. and 34° 50' S., and between long. 17° 30′ W. and 51° 30′ E.; being thus mainly tropical, and having only its northern and southern borders within warm-temperate latitudes. Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean, and but slenderly united to Asia by the low Isthmus of Suez, which is only 72 miles across, it is all but insular, and has consequently little of that community which marks the relations of Europe and Asia. The continuity of its coast-line is almost unbroken by seas, gulfs, or estuaries, and this resisting solidity of form is no doubt the chief cause of its interior being less known than that of any of the other continents. Even the disposition of its rivers is unfavourable to its penetration. The largest of them flow within its equatorial limits, and either debouch through swampy jungles, which is death for the white men to enter, or descend by cataracts and waterfalls inaccessible to navigation.

329. So far as we know of the physical peculiarities of the continent, it may be divided into four or five regions-differing in physical structure, but less in climate and vital aspects, than the regions of any of the other continents. Beginning with the north, we have—1st, The mountainous district of the Tell lying between the Mediterranean and the Sahara, and composed largely of the Atlas chain, with its subordinate spurs and intervening valleys. Where the hills decline towards the Atlantic in Marocco the district is somewhat flat, but, generally speaking, it is hilly and irre

gular, with a warm but salubrious climate towards the Mediterranean, and a dry scorching one on the north, where it insensibly graduates into the Sahara. 2d, The region of the Sahara or Great Desert, which stretches from Marocco on the west to the Nile valley on the east—a hot and arid expanse, consisting partly of shingly plateaux resting on gypsum and largely impregnated with salt, and partly of dunes or ridges of drifting sand, the whole being marked at intervals by oases or fertile spots that enjoy the presence of a spring or runnel of water. The Sahara has thus its fertile and inhabited oases, its scrubby plateaux, and its shifting dunes of utter sterility. Its general character, however, is aridity and barrenness, and the oases merely appear like islets of verdure amid an ocean of desert. 3d, The Atlantic-coast region, a belt of luxuriant but unhealthy lowland, marked by numerous deltas and jungles along shore, but gradually rising and improving towards the interior. This region is rich in tropical forest-growth and verdure, but its pestilential climate has hitherto resisted all European approach, unless at a few very limited and unsatisfactory stations. 4th, The Southern or Cape region, which rises by successive hill-stages towards the north or unknown interior— these stages forming irregular terraces which are covered with grass after the rains, but become hard and bare, or but partially dotted with thorny scrub, during seasons of drought. On the whole, this region is hilly and irregular in surface, has a salubrious but arid climate, is by no means well watered by rivers, and is occasionally subject to destructive droughts. 5th, The Central region, which, so far as we can judge from recent discovery, partakes of the character of a high table-land, having numerous lagoons and creeks during the rains; but is wanting, on the whole, in rivers of permanent volume and navigable channels. Though strictly tropical, the elevation of this table-land confers on many portions the climate of temperate zones; and where water is present the country is described as fine and fertile, well peopled, and partially under a rude cultivation. The 6th and last region is that skirting the Red Sea, and comprising the hilly but not unfertile table-land of the Galles and Abyssinians, the more stony and arid country of Nubia, and the alluvial valley and delta of Egypt. This region is remarkable for its fine but somewhat arid climate; its fertility where water is present; and, ethnologically, for the early and peculiar character of its civilisation.

330. Geologically we know little of the formations of Africa, and hitherto the continent has contributed less to the mineral and metallic wealth of the civilised world than any other region. The whole of the Sahara is but the upheaved bed of a tertiary, or even

quaternary ocean; the deltas of the Nile, Niger, and other great rivers, consist of recent alluvia; the formations of the Cape are chiefly mesozoic sandstones; the northern belt consists largely of soft tertiary limestone; the primary hills of Abyssinia and Nubia are known chiefly for their granites and porphyries; and most of the islands, whether in the Atlantic or Indian Ocean, are of recent volcanic origin. The great interior is unknown, but, judging from conformation as well as from native ornaments and report, iron, copper, gold, and silver must exist in its mountains.

331. As already observed, the greater portion of the continent lies within the tropics, and must necessarily partake of the climate peculiar to the torrid zone. The Cape region and the region of the Tell are the only parts enjoying warm-temperate or sub-tropical conditions, and even these are more or less influenced by the excessive climate that pervades the interior. "It is only that strip of Barbary," says Balbi, "which the Atlas protects from the hot winds of the desert, and that part of Hottentotland protected by the Nieuveldt and other mountains near the Cape, that enjoy the advantages of countries situated within the temperate zones. With the exception, therefore, of these small and narrow tracts, of those regions in the interior to which their elevation imparts the coolness of higher latitudes, and of the borders of the great lakes and rivers (see Captain Speke's experiences, 173), every part of Africa is burnt up by continual heat, and the continent generally may be regarded as the warmest region of the globe. Nothing moderates the heat and the dryness but the annual rains, the sea-winds, and the elevation of the soil; while in the well-watered regions, the moisture combined with the heat, though productive of the most luxuriant vegetation, are extremely deleterious to man."

332. As might be expected from the tropical position and generally hot and arid climate of Africa, its vegetation is more unique and much less varied than that of Europe or Asia. Along the Mediterranean seaboard and the lower valley of the Nile, the vegetation greatly resembles that of southern Europe, with a greater tendency, perhaps, to tropical forms. Wherever soil and water can be obtained, rice, maize, wheat, lentil, and millet; the grape, orange, fig, olive, and date; cotton, flax, and tobacco, can be grow to perfection, and often, as in Lower Egypt, yield large returns. The Sahara, where vegetation is possible, is characterised by its prickly shrubs, brooms, pistachios, tamarisks, ephedras, and dry tufty stypa grass, while in its oases the date-palm is the indispensable product, having, as the Arabs say, "its feet in water and its head in fire." In Upper Egypt and the highlands of Nubia and Abyssinia, the characteristic plants are gum-yielding

acacias, the cassia or senna shrub, coffee, ginger, turmeric, cardamoms, melon, lotus or jujub, the nelumbium or water-lily; and the cultivated ones, maize, lentil, and millet. The Cape region, as might be expected from its arid soil and climate, is distinguished for its heaths, proteas, pelargoniums, mesembryanthemums, stepelias, crassulas, euphorbias, aloes, cactuses, thorn - apple, mimosa, and prickly shrubs; and at the same time yields profitably such plants as have been introduced by the settlers, as vines, currant-grape, orange, pine-apple, peaches, apricots, pears, apples, and other garden fruits; together with rice, cotton, tobacco, tea, and coffee. In the central parts of the continent the vegetation, of course, is strictly tropical—palms of many species, banyan, adansonia, banana, dragon-tree, papaw, tamarind, sugar-cane, cotton-tree, tallow-tree, maize, manioc, yam, ground-nut, melon, and the like, being the native produce; while in the islands (Mauritius, Madeira, &c.), the vine, lemon, orange, melon, coffee, and sugar-cane can be grown to perfection.

333. Like the other continents of the Old World, Africa possesses a numerous and diversified fauna, though from its greater uniformity of climate, its almost insular position, and the absence of vast intervening barriers, there is a greater sameness or community between its different regions. It has also several forms peculiar to itself, though, remarkable enough, these forms are found fossil in the more recent tertiaries of Europe and Asia. The tropical forests abound in apes, monkeys, and baboons; the larger felinæ (lion, panther, leopard, &c.) roam almost from one end to the other of the continent, as do also the hyena, jackal, and their congeners; antelopes, in numerous species, are nowhere so abundant; it possesses also, in a special degree, the Cape buffalo, camel, dromedary, giraffe; the horse, zebra, dauw, quagga; the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and species of river-hog; cetacea (whales, seals, dolphins) are all but unknown in its waters, but many of the smaller mammals, hyrax, porcupine, ant-eater, pangolin, jerboa, &c., are peculiar and numerous. Among the birds of Africa may be mentioned eagles, griffins, vultures, and other birds of prey; ostrich, bustard, guinea-fowl, quail; flamingo, pelican, secretary-bird, crane, ibis ; parrots, parroquets, and others of brilliant plumage; cuckoo, swallow, nightingale, canary, and the like, which are only known to us as summer visitants or household captives. Though numbering among her reptiles, turtles, crocodiles, monitors, lizards, chameleons, &c., Africa, as a tropical country, is by no means rich in serpents; and though her seas and rivers abound in fish, yet in food-fishes she falls far behind the sister-continents of Europe and Asia. Her insects, too

(locust, white-ant, scorpion, tzetze-fly, &c.), are chiefly destructive or troublesome; and she possesses few or none, like the silkworm, cochineal insect, and bee, of commercial utility.

334. The inhabitants of Africa (laying aside English, Dutch, Portuguese, and other European settlers) belong chiefly to the Semitic branch of the Caucasian variety in the north, and wholly to the negro or Ethiopian variety in the central and southern regions. The Semitic or Syrio-Arabian stock embraces the Egyptians or Copts, the Abyssinians, Nubians, Arabs, Berbers, Moors, and other families arising from their admixture; the Negro variety embraces, on the other hand, the whole of the dark-coloured races-Gallas, Fellatah, Jalofes, Mandingoes, Krus, Ashantees, Congos, Zulus, Kaffirs, Hottentots, Bosjesmen, &c.—that people the continent from the Sahara to the Cape. Unless within the European settlements, civilisation in Africa is at a very low ebb. The Moors and Arabs, though active traders, are but in a state of semi-civilisation their manufactures in silk, cotton, linen, leather, and the like, are rude; and their commerce, carried on chiefly by caravan, is limited and uncertain. The negro races, on the other hand, though some tribes indulge in barter, others keep herds, and some again attempt a primitive agriculture, are not, as a whole, raised beyond the level of barbarism. The inherent qualities of the race are evidently inferior; and whether it is capable of amalgamating with the white, of being taught and elevated by its example, or is doomed ultimately to disappear before it, are problems yet to be solved by the ethnologist. On the whole, the habitat of the true Negro seems to be strictly intertropical; under its fiery sun he is robust, hardy, and lively; beyond it he becomes enfeebled, and degenerates. The heat, however, that develops the Negro enervates the white, and this circumstance may yet reserve for the race an equatorial zone in which it may attain to a limited and semi-dependent civilisation.

North America.

335. This great section of the New World bears much the same relation to the western hemisphere that Asia-Europe does to the eastern; while South America holds a somewhat analogous position to Africa. Like Europe and Asia, North America lies chiefly within the northern temperate zone; has its coast-line well diversified by bays, gulfs, peninsulas, and promontories, and has also numerous outlying islands. South America, on the other hand, lies, like Africa, mainly within the tropics; is also slenderly united