384 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Oct. 



except the goat, man, and donkey. Its bite does no harm to man 

 nor to the donkey, though one donkey we took through a tzetze 

 district did die, probably from over-fatigue. We made no discovery 

 as to the nature of the curious poison injected by the insect, nor 

 could we find out where it laid its eggs. Where the slave-trade is 

 unknown the cattle are the only cause of war. The Makololo 

 will travel a month for the sake of lifting cattle ; this is not consid- 

 ered stealing; and when the question is put, " Why should you 

 lift what does not belong to you ?" they return the Scotch answer, 

 " Why should these Makalaka (or black fellows) possess cattle if 

 they can't defend them ?" Having secured the good-will of all the 

 people below and adjacent to Murchison's Cataracts, we next pro. 

 ceeded further north, and discovered the Shire flowing in a broad, gen- 

 tle stream out to Lake Nyassa, about sixty miles above the cataracts. 

 The country on each side of the river and lake rises up in what, 

 from below, seem ranges of mountains, but when they have been 

 ascended they turn out to be elevated plateaux, cool and well watered 

 with streams. To show the difference of temperature, we were drink- 

 ing the waters of the Shire at eighty-four degrees, and by one day's 

 march up the ascent, of between 3,000 and 4,000 feet, we had it at 

 sixty-five degrees, or nineteen degrees lower. It felt as if iced. We 

 had no trouble with the people. No dues were levied, nor fines de- 

 manded, though the Manganja were quite independent in their bear- 

 ing towards us, and strikingly different from what they afterwards 

 became. Our operations were confined chiefly to gaining the friend- 

 ship of the different tribes, and imparting what information we 

 could with a view to induce them to cultivate cotton for expor- 

 tation. It has already been mentioned that each family had its 

 own cotton-patch ; some of these were of considerable extent ; one 

 field, close to Zedzan Cataract, I lately found to be 630 paces 

 on one side, and the cotton was of excellent quality, not requiring 

 replanting oftener than once in three years, and no fear of injury 

 by frost. After careful examination, I have no hesitation in 

 re-asserting that we have there one of the finest cotton-fields 

 in the world. On remonstrating with the chiefs against selling 

 their people into slavery, they justified themselves on the plea 

 that none were sold except criminals. The crimes may not always 

 be very great, but I conjecture, from the the extreme ugliness of 

 many slaves, that they are the degraded criminal classes ; and it 

 is not fair to take the typical negro from among them any more 

 than it would be to place " Bill Sykes " or some of Finich's 



