The Coolidge examiner. [volume] (Coolidge, Ariz.) 1930-current, 1938-03-17
Nature and Mon Have Contributed
To the Murvels Of the Dark Continent

Prepared by National Geographic Society,
Washington. D. C.-WNU Service.
TN AFRICA are natural
wonders which almost
challenge belief. The Sa-
hara, a vast waste of rock,
gravel, and sand, is so big it
would hold the entire CONT
mental United States. The
reason it is a desert at all is,
simply stated, that the wind
blows in the wrong direction
down from the dry heart of
central Asia instead of from
the moisture-giving ocean.
The temperature changes so
sharply at nightfall that trav-
elers who have suffered in
the blazing heat find them
selves shivering under blan-
kets.
This immense area of desolation
served as a highly effective shield
which long protected central Africa
from overland exploration from the
north.
The Zambezi rivers Victoria
falls-whose native name means
Smoke That Thunders''-are al
most two and a half times as high
as Niagara.
Lake Tanganyika is the worlds
longest fresh-water lake. and near
by Lake Victoria is larger in area
than any of the five Great Lakes of
North America except Superior.
The Nile is river so long that it
would reach from New York to far
beyond the North Pole The En-
peror Nero sent an expedition to dis
cover its source, but the effort failed
and not until 1862 was it ascer-
tanned that the White Nile had its
beginnings among the mountains
and huge lakes of the Congo-Tan-
ganyika borderland.
Four Thousand Miles of Nile
From the source of the Kagera,
which flows into Lake Victoria and
which may be regarded as the ulti-
mate starting point. Nile river wa
ter flows about 1000 miles before
reaching the Mediterranean. Heavy
seasonal rainfall at the headwaters
of the Blue Nile in the mountains
Of Ethiopia mainly causes the an
nual food which has irrigated the
fields of Egypt for countless cen
turtles. The marvellous Nile drains
million square miles.
In its long and useful flow through
desert lands the Nile loses so much
moisture that only feeble stream
actually reaches the sea. In fact,
at low water special dams help to
keep the Mediterranean from fow-
ing into the river.
Instead of enormous pyramids
erected by long-vanished monarchs,
modern men, through the enterprise
Of the British, have built along the
Nile huge dams to harness it for
irrigation and power purposes. The
Aswan dam. in Egypt, impounds
more than five billion tons of water.
The Congo, draining even larg-
er area than the Nile and flowing
through the heart of the continent,
provides, with its tributaries, nearly
1000 miles of navigable waterways
above Leopoldville, and its seasonal
variation in volume is less than that
of Africa's other great rivers. Rap
ids and cataracts, however, make
it inaccessible to ocean steamers.
The rocky barriers characteristic
Of African rivers, where they plunge
toward the sea, long proved tre-
mendous obstacle TO the exploration
and development of the interior.
All Sorts of Natural Wonders.
A noteworthy victim of river pi-
racy is the Niger, which rises within
$50 miles of the Atlantic, yet flows
for 1900 miles before emptying into
the Gulf of Guinea. Its headwaters
are raided by pirate rivers--short
streams fed by heavy rainfall along
the coast which cut deeper and deep
er inland, year by year capturing
more and more of the Myers wa
tershed.
From elephants and gorillas to
butterflies, there is no end to the
wonder of Africa's natural life, still
rich, although some of the most in
teresting species have been deci-
mated by thoughtless hunting.
Besides big game" there are
termites that build "anthills" the
height of small house; driver
ants, that destroy every living thing
in their path; tsetse flies, whose
bite gives men sleeping sickness
and dooms domestic cattle to sud-
den death; snakes that eject their
venom, aiming for the enemy's
eyes to blind him: trees that store
up water to tide them over the dry
season.
A man-made wonder is the
worlds deepest gold mine, near Jo-
hannesburg, THE City Built on