nary world, when carried beyond a certain limit,
become its deadliest bane. Tliat parent orb, which
cheers and illumines the rest of the earth, glares
on Africa with oppressive and malignant beam,
blasting the face of nature, and covering her with
barrenness and desolation. Sometimes it con-
verts the soil into a naked desert; sometimes
overspreads it with a noxious excess of animal and
vegetable life. The soil, when not watered by
copious rains or river inundations, is scorched
and dried up till it is converted into a dreary
waste. Hence it is, that in Africa, plains of sand
form a feature so truly alarming. The Great
Desert, witli the exception of the narrow valley of
the Nile, reaches across the entire continent, ex-
hibiting an expanse ofburningsurfa.ee, where for
many days the traveller finds not a drop of water,
nor sees the least vestige of animal or vegetable
nature. He pursues his dreary route amid loose
hills continually shifting, and leaving no marks
to guide his course. Every breeze is filled with
dust, which enters the mouth and nostrils, and
penetrates between the clothes and skin. Some-
times it drives along in clouds and whirlwinds,
beneath which it was once thought that caravans
and even armies had been buried; hut it is
now ascertained that the numerous bones which
whiten the desert are merely those of travellers
who have sunk under famine, thirst and fatigue ;
and that the sand, which continually blows, has
accumulated above them. Travellers over these
tracts of shingle have been impressed with the
idea of their being the hed of an ancient ocean.
This is not the place to enter into a speculation
on the formation of the earth. That every part
of its surface lay once beneath the waters is suffi-
ciently apparent; but there is at least no histori-
cal proof that Africa emerged later than other
continents. The earliest records represent her
deserts to have been as extensive as they are in
our days, and to have pressed equally close upon
the cultivated belt along the northern coast. In
general, all regions between the tropics, when not
copiously watered, moulder into sand, alternating
with a hard and impenetrable stratum of clay.
The central wastes of Asia, those of Arabia and
of Sindetic Hindustan, though inferior to those of
Africa, are yet of similar character and of im-
mense extent. In order to obviate the extreme ef-
fects of the tropical sun, which produces a desola-
tion so dreadful, Nature has provided suitable re-
medies. Every country under this latitude has
its rainy season, when, amid the blaze of light-
nings and the noise of thunders rending the sky,
heaven seems to open all her windows to pour an
unbroken flood upon the earth. The ground is cov-
ered as with a deluge, and the dry beds of the
rivulets are converted into torrents ; yet so intense
are the sun’s rays, that the moisture thus lavished
upon the surface is quickly dried up. Great riv-
ers, which, swollen by the rains, overflow their
hanks and lay the surrounding country under
water, or at least afford the means of artificial in-
undation, are the principal source of that luxuri-
ant fertility, that mighty growth of vegetable
forms, which sirigulany characterize the tropical
climates. It is to the waters which descend from
the lofty precipices and eternal snows of the Him-
maleh, that the plains of Hindoostan and China
owe their amazing fruitfulness. Africa, too, has
elevated mountain-chains, which give rise to sev-
eral rivers Of great magnitude and most fertilizing
influence. Atlas, along its northern border, pre-
sents even in so hot a climate, pinnacles wrapped
in everlasting snow. Still more extensive is that
central range, which, amid its various local names,
is most generally known under the poetical ap-
pellation of “ The Mountains of the Moon.” Yet
these chains, besides being not altogether so gi-
gantic as those of the other continents, labolir
under the peculiar disadvantages of extending
across the breadth only of Africa. The AndeS
and the lliimnaleh, those stupendous heights ol
America and Asia, as they traverse these conti-
nents in the direction of their lengtii, cover a
much greater surface, and thus create fertility in
the more limited plains which intervene between
the mountains and the ocean. But the laro-est of
the African rivers, directing their course through
a vast extent of low land, reach the sea only hv a
circuitous course. Several of them, too, diffus-
ing their waters into lakes or marshes, expire in
the very heart of the continent The result is. that
the enormous breadth of the Sahara, or Great
Desert, is scarcely irrigated even by ^a streamlet.
It depends entirely on the periodical rains ; and
these sink into the sandy and porous surface, till
being arrested at the depth of eight or ten feet,
they form that “ sea under ground” which lias
been traced over a large portion of the waste.

Vegetable life, in consequence of this absence
of moisture, is scantily diffused over a great ex-
tent of the continent. In the heart of the moun-
tains, however, and in the kingdoms along their
border, the soil is most profusely watered, and.
under the influence of a tropical sun, produces
perhaps, beyond any other part of the world, that
luxuriant growth and those gigantic vegetable
forms, which distinguish the equatorial regions
The baobab, or great calabash, appears to be the
most enormous tree on the face of the earth. Ad-
anson assures us, that the circumference in some
cases is equal to thirteen fathoms, as measured by
his arms clasped round the trank, that is varying
from seventy-four to seventy-seven feet. Branch-
es extending horizontally from the trank, each
equal to a large tree, make the baobab a forest as
it were by itself. The mangrove, too, which
rises on the borders of rivers or inundated spots,
diffuses itself in a manner truly remarkable. Tiie
branches, dropping down upon the watery bank,
strike root and grow ; hence the original plant,
spreading farther and farther, forms over the
stream a species of natural arcade. These mighty
trees do not stand alone, but have their intersti-
ces filled up by numberless shrubs, canes, creep-
ing and parasitical plants, which intersect and en-
twine. with each other till they form a thick and
impenetrable mass of underwood. To cut even
a narrow pass through these dense forests is a la-
borious process ; and as shoots are continually
protruding inwards on each side, the track, with-
out constant travelling, and the diligent use of the
axe, soon becomes impassable.

As we approach the confines of the Desert,
these giants of the wood disappear, and vegeta-
tion presents a different and more pleasing aspect.
It exhibits now the light and gay form of the aca-
cia, whole forests of which rise amid the sand,
distilling those rich gums that afford an impor-
tant material of African commerce. The lotus, a
celebrated and classical shrub, the tamarisk, and
other small and elegant trees, afford agreeable and
nutritive berries, which constitute the food of
several nations. Various flowering shrubs of the
most delicate tints, rising in wild and spontane-
ous beauty, embellish the precincts of the waste.
Thus the Desert, in its first approaches, and be-