western coast of Spain, between Gape Finis terre and St. Vincent,
the extreme point of Europe. Africa presents, towards
the south" pole and the sap them ocean, a front extending one
hundred and thirty, geographical miles from-east to west, with
a deviation of only.fourteen miles, towards the north. This
line is included between the Cape of Good Hope and Algoa
Bay.
The region of Attica, of which this line is the southern
boundary, is traversed by chains of mountains running f r o m
east to west, and marking the limits of three successive steps
or terrasseg of different elevation. The whole structure .of the
country thus described might be compared, as Professor
Hitter has observed, to that of Tibet or Daouria, with its series
of different levels succeeding each other in regular gradation,
but the arid nature of its climate distinguishes all the
productions of Africa from those of Asiatic regions Which
have the advantage of a more abundant'and equable supply
of moisture. Hence the characteristic differences Observed'in
these different regions of the World in vegetation and in the
whole aspect of organized nature.
The highest elevation in the scries above described of successive
terasses or levels, is the region through which the
Gariep winds its course towards the ^Atlantic Ocean, trêmed
by Ritter the “ Table-land of the Orange River.” The extent
of this plain towards the north is unknown. According to
the most probable conjecture it is prolonged northward to thê
tropic, and unités with the central highland of Africa. Here
all the small rivers, like the Gariep, take a westerly direction,
inclining slightly towards the north. The high region of the
Orange River is limited towards the south by a vast range
of mountains which traverse nearly the whole continent from
east to west, and of which the chains of the Roggeveld, the
Nieuwveld, the SnieuW-berg and the Winter-berg, are parts.
The table-land to the northward of this boundary-line consists
partly of vast forests, where the soil is watered by the
Gariep, partly of steppes covered with herbage, and, in many
vast spaces, of arid and sandy deserts. The highest chain of
mountains elevating themselves above this • surface, are the
Karri and the Madjaaga or, Iron Mountains, supposed to rise
one thousand feet above the plains : the level surface is itself,
according ^to Proféssor Ritter’s calculation; five thousand or
five thousand three hundred feet above the level of the-sea.
the southward of the mountain-chain which forms the
boundary .of, the highland above- described, a second and
lower level, extends, from oast to West, containing the districts
named: the Karroos; a term gkemmthevcolony to plains
of which the soil is , a hard dry clay divided by innumerable
fisSures. The Zwarteherg'pr^Black Mountains, a long chain
extending from east: to: west; ;,and separated by various ravines
or kloofs,, is the barrier, which forms the southern limit of the
Karroos, and divides them like a wall from the third level or
littoral terrass towards the south. This- lower region stretches'
along.'the coast from the Cape-of Good Hope to Algoa Bay:
it ^becomes narrower as; we proceed from west-to east.
Of, the "Eastern Parts *ofi Africa; ; southward ^of the
eqùdtor.
Of the geography of Southern Africa;’ considered W a
Whole, we haveTess'consistent knOwledghthan of that of the
northèfn part of the same ConteÉJ* The^teriôr of tlfe
eastern part, from the 'river Juba to the Keiskammh!;‘ was'almost
unknown until within aVéfÿ ‘short period. John de
Barros, Andrew Battel, andthe Porthgul^e‘missionary Joâo
dos Sanctos, the latter ©f whond set bilt from Lisbon in 1586,
w e re the only travellers on whosé "accounts of thé rrilahd
country mûch reliance could be placedf 'until the late %*xj3édi-
tioii'under Obtain OWen ; and 'the attempts-of Lacé^èfie to
determine,: with almost the dimife36f
the high and low countries, and thcbdiirste and number of the
great chains of mountains supposed to proceed in different directions
from the great central plain, must -be looked upCn as
conjectural and premature. Even Ritter'has carried'his; ëyè-
tematical attempt to generalise beyoïïd the'extCat of his data m
this part of geography,- though the exactness*'With which he
has compared all the1 : informations 'accessible at the time
when his ! work was written is such as to entitle bisrepihidris
to attention. Enough, ' indeed; • is known to establish the
principal point in which Ritter differs from Lacépèdë. That