Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-15
The TOPICAL TALKER.

Atftoh het hHuuhh Foptc-Fopulaf Dee
iusions About the Dark Goniinsnt-The
Principal Features Of Equatorial Africa
Highways Through the Borest-Rnos
TvDe,,
pERHAPs this is not just the sort of weather
In which to talk of Africa-Greenlan
10y mountains would be more of o relief as a
topic, But all the world more or less Is talking
of Africa. and Americans are interested in
Stanley's discoveries II not in the actual par
tition of the Dark Continent.
We all OF US have good deal to learn about
Africa and almost as much to unlearn. When
] was ut school Africa always figured in my
mind as q combination of sandy deserts and
trackless jungies in which lions and elephants
were lords paramount. The prevailing color of
African landscapes was tawny orange in my
imagination-this was due to tho fact, think.
that the map Of Africa in my atlas was 50 tinted.
The picture Of a loness and her cLbs in the
moonlit desert by Gerome which was ex-
hibited here recently, and now hangs in Mr.,
Lockhart's gallery, represents a phase of
African life with which we are all tolerably
familiar. But the revelations of equatorial
Africa which are being made these days ne.
cessitate general reformation In our notions
of that land.
FIRST as to the idea of the heart of Africa
being desert. Nothing could be more
wildly untrue. The country rises in three tiers
from surrounding oceans. 1t is gradual
ascent from the coast to the mountains. The
land near the coast is full of deadly malaria. 1t
is covered with rank yellow grass, and the
native Swahilis divide the richness thereof
with the leopard. the hyena, the crocodile and
the hippopotamus The higher ground of the
next tier, and the mountainous plateau from
Kilima NJaros snowy peak to the Eastern
shores of Lake Nyanza, are covered with end
less forests-"not grand outrageous Forest"
says Professor Drummond, like the forests of
South America, nor matted jungle like the
forests of India, but thin, rather weak forests.
of low trees, whose half-grown trunks and
scanty leaves offer no shade from the tropical
sum-"
tt ere are thousands and thousands of miles
of this vast thin forest, shadeless and voiceless.
Once in a week you will see a palm; once in
three months a monkey will cross your path;
the flowers are few, the color effects monotA
onous and dazzling under the everlasting glare
of the sun in the torrld zone
Mr.. Drummond, who has studied tropical
Africa more closely and systematically than
any other man, Gays that the sweetest moment
of the African day comes in the ten minutes
Just after sunset, when the whole tone Of the
landscape changes like magic and singular
-
A MOTHER impression that travellers have GER
tainiy given their readers OF the Central
African forests ID that they arc q traekiess
wilderness through which the desperate or
plerer makes his way guided by his compass,
chance and pack OF black guides, who, "fer
iaEiness ugliness. stupidity and wiekedness are
not to be matched ON any continent OF the
world"
1t IL true that o man may land at Zanzibar
and find plenty Of these black villains, the
porters, ready enough to engage for the Vieto-
ria Nyanza or for the grand tour OF the Tan
ganyika, The black guides are the scum OF OLD