in which he insists that certain altruistic factors modify
the process of Natural Selection. This doctrine elicited much critical
commentary from the stricter sects of the scientists, but the new view
commended itself at once to the general reader.

The citations here given are selected from Mr. Drummond's book of
travels, 'Tropical Africa,' a book whose simplicity and vividness
enable the reader to see the Dark Continent exactly as it is.

THE COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE

From 'Tropical Africa'

Nothing could more wildly misrepresent the reality than the idea of
one's school days that the heart of Africa is a desert. Africa rises
from its three environing oceans in three great tiers, and the general
physical geography of these has been already sketched:--first, a coast
line, low and deadly; farther in, a plateau the height of the Scottish
Grampians; farther in still, a higher plateau, covering the country
for thousands of miles with mountain and valley. Now fill in this
sketch, and you have Africa before you. Cover the coast belt with rank
yellow grass; dot here and there a palm; scatter through it a few
demoralized villages; and stock it with the leopard, the hyena, the
crocodile, and the hippopotamus. Clothe the mountainous plateaux next,
both of them, with endless forests; not grand umbrageous forest like
the forests of South America, nor matted jungle like the forests of
India, but with thin, rather weak forest,--with forest of low trees,
whose half-grown trunks and scanty leaves offer no shade from the
tropical sun. Nor is there anything in these trees to the casual eye
to remind you that you are in the tropics. Here and there one comes
upon a borassus or fan-palm, a candelabra-like euphorbia, a mimosa
aflame with color, or a sepulchral baobab. A close inspection also
will discover curious creepers and climbers; and among the branches
strange orchids hide their eccentric flowers. But the outward type of
tree is the same as we have at home--trees resembling the ash, the
beech, and the elm, only seldom so large except by the streams, and
never so beautiful. Day after day you may wander through these
forests, with nothing except the climate to remind you where you are.
The beasts to be sure are different, but unless you watch for them you
will seldom see any; the birds are different, but you rarely hear
them; and as for the rocks, they are our own familiar gneisses and
granites, with honest basalt dikes boring