Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, Fifth Series, No. 115, Vol. III, March 13, 1886

Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, Fifth Series, No. 115, Vol. III, March 13, 1886

To those who associate the name of the great African continent only with visions of the steaming mangrove swamps of the west coast, the luxuriant flower-carpets and grasses of the south, the trackless sand-wastes of the north, and the undulating thirsty plains of the Bush, whose idea of Africa, indeed, may be summed up in three wordssun, savages, and feverto such, we say, it may be difficult to accept the knowledge that snow-capped mountains exist in the very heart of this dry and heat-engirdled land. But yet, there have been for ages, strange tales of a wonderful mountain-mass in the tropical centre, whose summit was perpetually covered with a mysterious substance which the natives called white salt. Now, as perpetual snow under the equator was known only in Central Americanowhere else do mountains in the tropics reach the snow-linethere did exist for ages incredulity as to the existence of this alleged African Mont Blanc or Chimborazo. The legend referring to it must have been known to the early Portuguese travellers at least three centuries ago, for the Portuguese were at Mombasa in the sixteenth century, and as Mombasa is within one hundred and eighty miles of the mountain, and is the coast-limit of the trade-route between it and the sea, they must have heard the stories of the native and Arab traders. Others believed this Kilima-Njaro[1] to be merely the legendary Mountains of the Moon. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 68073
Author: Various
Release Date: May 14, 2022
Format: eBook
Language: English
Publisher: William and Robert Chambers
Publication Date: 1853
Publisher Country: United Kingdom