the lotus eaters, the home of the dwarfs, gnomes, and pixies, and the
refuge of the gods; in commerce it is the slave mart and the source of
ivory, ebony, rubber, gold, and diamonds. What other continent can rival
in interest this Ancient of Days?

There are those, nevertheless, who would write universal history and leave
out Africa. But how, asks Ratzel, can one leave out the land of Egypt and
Carthage? and Frobenius declares that in future Africa must more and more
be regarded as an integral part of the great movement of world history.
Yet it is true that the history of Africa is unusual, and its strangeness
is due in no small degree to the physical peculiarities of the continent.
With three times the area of Europe it has a coast line a fifth shorter.
Like Europe it is a peninsula of Asia, curving southwestward around the
Indian Sea. It has few gulfs, bays, capes, or islands. Even the rivers,
though large and long, are not means of communication with the outer
world, because from the central high plateau they plunge in rapids and
cataracts to the narrow coastlands and the sea.

The general physical contour of Africa has been likened to an inverted
plate with one or more rows of mountains at the edge and a low coastal
belt. In the south the central plateau is three thousand or more feet
above the sea, while in the north it is a little over one thousand feet.
Thus two main divisions of the continent are easily distinguished: the
broad northern rectangle, reaching down as far as the Gulf of Guinea and
Cape Guardafui, with seven million square miles; and the peninsula which
tapers toward the south, with five million square miles.

Four great rivers and many lesser streams water the continent. The
greatest is the Congo in the center, with its vast curving and endless
estuaries; then the Nile, draining the cluster of the Great Lakes and