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Show 650 MR. R. CRAWSHAY ON THE [Dec. 2, more enhanced by never-ending variety : swamps green and luxuriant with papyrus and reeds give way to open sandy plains sparsely studded with borassus ; dry arid flats, relieved only by a few grotesque baobabs or sprawling-limbed acacias are gradually changed for thickly wooded undulating highlands ; and, in places, as for instance on the E. coast of the Lake in the neighbourhood of Kalowilis, and again for some 50 miles at the N.E. end, lofty mountains rise wall-like sheer out of the water shutting out all beyond, while in others they succeed one another, tier upon tier, till those in the background resemble only blue hazy clouds. And yet the distinguished writer of ' Tropical Africa' has it that Nyasa scenery is not African, or, to use his own words, does not " remind you where you are." But from what I have seen of the country, I can only say no words could be more unhappily chosen. Neither are the sentences " once a week you will see a palm ; once in three weeks the monkey will cross your path," any more appropriate, since palms are almost everywhere, while forest and swamp are alive with animals and birds. But though to the human eye the country is surpassingly fair to look upon, yet no part of it can be termed healthy, or even moderately so, since everywhere malaria is prevalent in a greater or less degree, whether in sand, soil, swamp, or rock, though temperature is doubtless a powerful agent in generating it. Still, on the highland plateaux where a height of from 2000 to 4000 feet or more can be attained,' the climate must be much better adapted to whites, though the change there from the enervating lowlands would at first prove trying, as the malaria " works itself out." On the Lake itself the heat is never very oppressive, and it is not so great as in the low country inland from it, as there is almost always in the daytime a breeze which more often than not partakes of the nature of a gale. There are two prevailing winds : from sunrise till noon the " Mvuma" (east wind) blows; this° as the sun reaches the meridian, gradually dies, and is then almost immediately succeeded by the "Mwera" (south-easter), the most tearing wind on Nyasa, which lasts till sunset, when it drops. During the night, there is rarely any wind, and then, as the natives say, the Nyanja " sleeps." The greatest heat I have experienced in the Nyasa Country has been on the vast swampy plains round Kisako, in Mapweri s country, close in under the Wa-kinga Mountains Here about the middle of November when the rains "there commence the temperature at noonday in the shade is seldom under 100° often considerably more This moist steamy heat it is that generates the worst type of malaria, and terribly cruelly unhealthy are these Awa-Nyakyusa plains. Many other topics there are still pressing for mention : one of the foremost being that of the Nyasa tribes and their languages-* most .uteresting study ; but the subject is too lengthy to dell with now n m y limited space, and I must leave it untouched, as also zoology in general, ornithology, and entomology, all of which offer a new and practically unlimited field to the naturalist. The future will no doubt, do much for Nyasa-land and all these sciences as well1 open |
