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Show 134 STEPPES AND DESERTS. are connected with the elevated parts of the Earth's surface on the north side of the Equator (or with the Abyssinian mountains), by the mountains of the Moon. The word 11 Lupata," we learn from the last-named African traveller, is used in the language of Tette, as an adjective, meaning 11 closed." The chain of mountains would thus be called the 11 closed" or 11 barred." 11 The Lupata chain of Portuguese writers," says Peters, "is about 90 legoas or leagues from the mouth of the Zambeze, and is only about two thousand feet high. The direction of this mountain rampart is north and south, but with occasional bends alternately to the east and to the west. It is sometimes interrupted by plains. Along the whole of the Zanzibar coast, the traders into the interior speak of this long but not very elevated ridge, which extends from 6° to 26° S. latitude, as far as the Factory of Lourenzo-1\Iarques, on the Rio de Espiritu Santo (in the Bay da Lagoa, or Delagoa Rly of the English). The farther the Lupata chain advances towards the south, the nearer it approaches the coast, from which it is only fifteen legoas distant at Lourenzo-Marques.'' ( 24) p. 32.-" Caused by the great revolving eu1-rent." In the northern part of the Atlantic, between Europe, North Africa, and the New Continent, the waters of the ocean are driven round in a true revolving current, or circle. This general currentwhich, from its cause, might be called a 11 Rotation Current"-moves between the tropics, as is well known, with the trade wind, from east to west. It accelerates the passage of ships sailing from the Canaries to South America, and makes it almost impossible to sail 11 up stream," or in a direct line from Cartagena de Indias to Cumana. This set to the west, attributed to the trade winds, receives, however, in the Caribbean Sea, the accession of a much stronger movement, originating in a very remote cause, which was discovered as early as 1560 by Sir Humphrey Gilbert (Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. iii. p. 14), and developed with greater certainty by Renncll in 1832. The Mosambique current, flowing from north to south between 1\Iadargascar and the east coast of Africa, sets on the Lagullas Bank, turns on the north side of it round the south point of Africa, and advances with much force up the western coast of the Continent to a little |