At the first revelation of all these smart hypocrisies one is inclined to brand the whole system as cowardly and false. And, however much the creatures impress you by their cleverness, you never quite get over the feeling that there is something underhand about it; something questionable and morally unsound. The evolutionist, also, is apt to charge mimetic species in general with neglecting the harmonious development of their physical framework, and by a cheap and ignoble subterfuge evading the appointed struggle for life. But is it so? Are the æsthetic elements in nature so far below the mechanical? Are color and form, quietness and rest, so much less important than the specialization of single function or excellence in the arts of war? Is it nothing that, while in some animals the disguises tend to become more and more perfect, the faculties for penetrating them, in other animals, must continually increase in subtlety and power? And, after all, if the least must be said, is it not better to be a live dog than a dead lion? VIII. A GEOLOGICAL SKETCH. From the work of the various explorers who have penetrated Africa, it is now certain that the interior of that Continent is occupied by a vast plateau from 4000 to 5000 feet above the level of the sea. In five separate regions--in the North-east, in Abyssinia, in the Masai country, on the Tanganyika plateau, and in the district inland from Benguela--this plateau attains a height of considerably over 5000 feet; while towards the coast, throughout their entire length, both east and west, it falls with great uniformity to a lower plateau, with an elevation of from 1000 to 2000 feet. This lower plateau is succeeded, also with much uniformity along both coast lines, by littoral and deltoid plains, with an average breadth from the sea of about 150 miles. The section which I am about to describe, entering Africa at the Zambesi and penetrating inwards to the Tanganyika plateau, traverses each of these regions in turn--the coast-belt, the lower fringing table-land, the great general plateau of the country, and the third or highest elevation of the Tanganyika table-land. To deal thoroughly with so vast a region in the course of a single exploration is out of the question; and I only indicate here a few of the rough results of what was no more than a brief and hasty reconnaissance.