Longmans' School Geography

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1894 Excerpt: ... is the long and narrow Lake Tanganyika, about half the size of Victoria Nyanza, and still further south Lake Bangweolo. East of the latter, oit a lower plateau, is Lake Nyassa, about the same size as Tanganyika. All these lakes lie within the southern half of the torrid zone, except a small portion of Victoria Nyanza. All the great rivers of Africa except the Nile belong wholly to the tropical portion of the continent. The Nile, the longest of all, has its head-waters collected by Lake Victoria Nyanza, from which it issues in the north, and alter touching the end of a smaller lake (Mwutan1), in the north-west, winds northwards to the eastern half of the Mediterranean. From Abyssinia it receives two important tributaries On the right, the Bahr-el-Azrek, or socalled Blue Nile,2 and the Atbara, but in the lower half of its course it does not receive a single tributary on either bank. The other three great rivers of Africa, the Niger, Congo, and Zambezi, all describe great curves among the interior plateaux before making their escape to the coast through the bordering mountains. The Niger, rising far west, sweeps northwards, and then south-east and south, before it empties itself by a delta into the Gulf of Guinea. The Congo has its head-waters collected by Lake Bangweolo 12 south of the equator, and reaches 2 north before bending southwards again to enter the Atlantio Ocean in about 6 south. In respect of the volume of its water discharge3 this river is by far the greatest of African rivers. The Zambezi has numerous headwaters in a region thickly streaked with rivers, partly belonging to its basin and partly to that of the Congo, between 10 and 15 south, and after describing an s curve enters the Indian Ocean (Mozambique Channel) by a delta opposite the middle...