LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
AFRICA AND AFRICA.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THIS " SPECTATOR.1
ZIE,—Sir Bartle Frere, in delivering his inaugural address recently at the Society of Arts, deplored "the inferior position which Africa now holds in the commercial and political world," and re- ferred to " the ancient glories of the inhabitants of the northern coast, the principal nations of which had successfully contended in -former years with the ruling powers of Europe." The natural inference from this would appear to be that that portion of the -continent of Africa which is peopled by the Negro species—more than three-fourths of it—has degenerated from a former compara- lively high civilisation which once existed along the northern shore.
Now it happens that at the present day the territory lying between Marasco and Zanguebar is connected with that ex- tensive mass of land comprising western, central, and southern Africa; but within the historical period the southern part of what --we now know as Northern Africa was washed by the ocean, which • eventually receded, leaving its mark in that waste, the Sahara, thus effecting the union of northern Africa—which was at one time of such limited dimensions as to have been rightly esteemed by the ancients but an excrescence from Asia—with the vast 'territory on its south and south-west, a country as distinct from Northern Africa in human species, fauna, and flora as Europe is from South America. Northern Africa has absolutely nothing African, in the modern sense, about it except the name. In human species, fauna, flora, monuments, institutions, civilisation, and religion it is, and ever has been, intimately connected with Europe and Western Asia ; and in none of these points is there she slightest evidence for believing that the negro race was even remotely connected with those who held sway in Egypt and along 'the northern coast. Climate may do much in colouring the skin, but to take one point only, not all the vicissitudes of climate 'could change the shape of a white man's skull to that of a negro's, nor even an ancient Egyptian's, Hindoo's, Chinaman's, Sandwich Islander's, South - American Indian's, or North- American Indian's.
The false system of geography, or, I should say, the no-system- -at-all, which prevails at the present day, and compels us to look 'upon men and things continentally, has been one of the greatest -drawbacks to the spread of accurate and scientific knowledge. Who that knows anything about the subject will question even this one point, that the fauna and flora of Northern Africa are part and parcel of the European and West Asian ? And yet who ever thinks of applying the remarkable law which exists therein, that neither man, animals, nor plants can be arranged by continents, but fall in distinct areas lying in parallel directions, viz., north- 'west ; marking out eight distinct centres of creation, with human -species, fauna, and flora perfectly independent, but producing mixed races by overlapping.
A great deal has been said about the origin of lakes. Now let -anyone interested in the subject lay down the land surface of the globe in the above manner, when two contiguous tracts rising from the ocean would on their borders enclose portions of water, greater or less, according to the nature of the surface, and there -would result a series of lakes, stretching in a north-west direction, such as we find in North America, Central Africa, Europe, and .Asia. I affirm with confidence that there is no lake—group or chain —which does not lie along one of these unions of contiguous tracts. Such, on a small scale, are the Swiss and British lakes, taken
as a whole, and such might have been the case with the Red Sea and Adriatic, had Africa joined Arabia at Aden, and Italy Turkey at the entrance to the Adriatic. Whether a lake would ulti- mately remain salt or become fresh, would depend simply upon the amount of fresh water poured into it by neighbouring rivers, and the presence or absence of an exit.—I am, Sir, &c., • B. G. JENKINS.
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