[Sidenote: The second belt or veldt.]

[Sidenote: Changes in rainfall.]

The whole east of the African continent from the cape in the south up to
Abyssinia in the north, and, I believe, farther, is marked by one
persistent feature, the existence of several more or less parallel
mountain-ranges rising in tiers from the coast. At the top of the last
and highest mountain-range lies the great elevated inland plateau,
stretching like a broad back along the continent. The first line of
hills or low mountains runs at a distance of from ten to fifty miles
from the coast of the Indian Ocean, and all the country between it and
the sea forms a low coastal belt, which seldom rises more than a few
hundred feet above sea-level, with a distinct coastal climate and
vegetation. Between these coastal hills and the next range lies the
second belt, called in South Africa the low veldt, again with a climate
and rainfall and vegetation of its own. Next and last, at a distance of
from a hundred to one hundred and fifty miles from the Indian Ocean,
runs a mountain system, often rising to great altitudes, on which rests
the great elevated inland plateau from four thousand to six thousand
feet above the level of the sea. This plateau continues for hundreds of
miles westward, and then begins to slope toward the Atlantic Ocean in
the far distance. Sometimes, as in Central Africa, the slope to the west
is very sudden, and another range of mountains forms the western
buttress of the great central plateau. All the great rivers of Africa,
with the exception of the Niger, rise on this plateau or on its
mountain-flanks, which have a very high rainfall. The bush, or great
forest, which is almost impenetrable in the coastal belt, becomes
somewhat more open in patches in the middle belt, while on the plateau
open, park-like country alternates with treeless, grassy plains, and