The Cameroons rise from the shores of the bight of Biafra, and extend eastward to an unknown distance, with many lofty summits, some of which are estimated at 13,000 ft., though others do not exceed 4,000 ft. We possess but little information as to the mountains which rise back of the terraced W. coast S. of the gulf of Guinea, but there are believed to be extensive ranges of very considerable height. The mountain system of the Cape country is peculiar. The continent is here 700 m. in width, and partly across it stretch three crescent-shaped ranges parallel to the S. coast, and increasing in elevation with their distance from it. The innermost of these ranges borders upon the great interior table land, and between them are narrow tier-like flats, called karroos, forming three gigantic steps ascending from the ocean respectively 2,000, 4,000 and 6,000 ft. above its level. The karroos are connected by defiles known as kloofs, there being no other means of communication between them. The names applied to the different sections of the intervening ranges are numerous.

In the southernmost is the Zwellendam group, of which the most prominent height is Table mountain, 3,582 ft. high; to the middle range belong the Zwarteberge, with an average elevation of 4,000 ft.; and on the N. the Roggeveld, Nieuwveld, Sneeuwveld, and others make up the third barrier on the southern edge of the great S. African plateau. The Compass Berg, in the Sneeuwveld, is 10,000 ft. high. The mountains of the E. coast begin with the Quatlamba range, a continuous chain extending between the 27th parallel and the beginning of the delta of the Zambesi, 300 m. from the Mozambique channel, with an elevation varying from 4,000 to 10,000 ft. . The Drakenberg is that portion of this range which borders the colony of Natal. At the head of the delta it widens into a belt of fertile highlands, and from this spot other mountain chains branch forth in various directions; one westward, one northward toward Lake Nyassa, and the Lupata mountains southward along the coast of Sofala at a distance of 160 m. from the sea.

The northward range is distinguished by no important peak S. of the 4th parallel; but between lat. 3° and 4° S., some 200 m. from the Indian ocean, rises the beautiful snowcapped summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, 20,065 ft. high, and believed to be the loftiest mountain in Africa. It has lately been partially ascended by the Rev. Charles New, an Englishman, who reached the snow line, and who describes its lower slopes as covered with forests of gigantic trees, above which are rich growths of heath and pasture. About 200 m. further N. Mt. Kenia also rises into the region of perpetual snow, its altitude being estimated at 17,000 ft. A continuous chain is believed to connect this range with Abyssinia. The Abyssinian system of mountains comprises numerous lofty summits clustered in groups on the elevated plateau which separates the Nile basin from the E. African coast. This table land sinks abruptly to the lowlands on the edge of the Red sea, but descends by much gentler gradations on its W. slope. The dividing ridge of the watershed averages 8,000 ft. in height; on the north it is considerably lower, while it ascends to 11,000 ft. on the south.

There are said to be peaks over 15,000 ft. high in the Simen range, and in other parts of the country there are known to be many higher than 12,000 ft. - Africa has long been regarded as distinctively and preeminently the country of deserts. The Sahara extends over almost all the northern portion of the continent between lat. 15° and 30° X. With an average width of 1,000 m., and an extreme length of 3,000 m., it stretches from the Nile to the Atlantic, and from the southern slopes of the Atlas to Soodan, covering an area which exceeds that of the Mediterranean, and with a surface in some places below the level of that sea. The southern limits of this vast land of desolation have never been continuously traced by Europeans, and our knowledge of its trackless wastes is confined to the ancient lines of caravan travel across them.. The surface, is made up of shifting sand, rough gravel, and barren rock, variously distributed, and occa-sionally traversed by low chains of bare hills. Extensive plains of salt also occur. Throughout this sterile region rain is almost unknown, and the heat is terrific.

At the equinoctial seasons the easterly wind, which blows during three fourths of the year, rises at times to a gale, and causes the terrific sand storms by which caravans have so frequently been overwhelmed. The western portion of the Sahara, called Sahel, is the wildest and most desolate; in the eastern portion, to a part of which the name Libyan desert is applied, are numerous oases. These differ greatly in extent, but all contain springs, rich grass, and date palms, Many of them are depressions below the sur- face of the surrounding desert. Some consist of little more than a well of fresh water, a clump of trees, and a spot of verdure; others cover many miles of fertile country. The more important are: the Great Oasis, or oasis of Thebes, 120 m. long and about 5 m. wide; the Lesser Oasis, smaller but similar in outline; the oasis of Darfoor, constituting the monarchy of a sultan; the oasis of Siwah, in which are the ruins of the famous temple of Jupiter Ammon; and the oasis of Fezzan, with the town of Moorzook as its capital.

All of these except the last are situated in a furrow-like depression, parallel to the Nile, intersecting the Libyan desert in its gradual descent toward the Mediterranean. The dreaded wind known as the simoom is a terrible scourge of the desert and the neighboring countries. It is due to the high temperature, sometimes 200° F., attained by the surface sand of the desert under the influence of the vertical rays of the sun pouring down upon it through an intensely dry atmosphere. The furnace-like wind to which this gives rise is rendered still more terrible by the particles of burning sand with which it is impregnated and which tinge the atmosphere with the reddish hue characteristic of the simoom. Burkhardt in 1813 recorded 122° F. in the shade during the prevalence of this pestilential blast, and 114° was observed in 1881 by Sir Samuel Baker. Many other winds of the same class blow from the desert; among them the parching sirocco, which sweeps from northern Africa over Sicily, southern Italy, and Syria; the khamsin, which blows in Egypt for 50 days between the end of April and the summer solstice; the harmattan, which prevails at regular intervals between November and February throughout Senegambia and Guinea, coming from the western Sahara; and the withering N. W. wind which occasionally visits Natal and the Cape. The great desert of southern Africa is the Kalahari, extending from the Orange river on the south to the 20th parallel of S. latitude, and from the pastoral Namaqua district on the west to a strip of pasture land which is believed to border the inland slope of the Quatlamba mountains.