With Flashlight and Rifle ^ 



Some two days' journey distant froni Kilimanjaro 

 rises the neighbourinL;- sinister-looking- Mount Meru, nearly 

 5,000 metres hioh, and still turthctr awa\', in the direction 

 of the X'ictoria Xyanza, several separate hills and volcanoes 

 are ranged. In the midst ot this world of mountains there 

 extends betore us in the bright sunshine an immeasurable 

 plateau, the " High Velts," at an elevation of some 

 thousands ot feet above the level ot the sea. According to 

 the season- — whether in the JMasika, the season of 

 hea\'y rain, or the drought — -Nyika is to be seen garbed 

 in a green shimmer of young grass and adorned tor miles 

 by separate rain-water streams like silver threads, or looking 

 brown and grim under a desert ot decayed vegetation. In 

 the latter case our eyes find resting-places here and there 

 in the valleys in which acacias, the ever-green I erminalia, 

 or other tlowers and shruljs, tind moist ground wherel)\' to 

 preserve their treshness. It would be difhcult toi' any but 

 a botanist to describe the character ot this plant world. 

 Professor Volkens has done so, in his work on Kilimanjaro, 

 in a masterly manner. 



Later we come across vast open spaces tlooded in 

 rainv seasons, Ijut in the time ot drought covered with 

 a white, salt\' incrustation which onl\- permits ot the 

 sparsest vegetable lite-, with now and again patches ot 

 green or sun-scorched grass. We may tmd acacia-bushes, 

 which stretch for immeasurable? distances, or thorn-trees 

 that look like fruit-trees, and indeed cause the name ot 

 " truit gardens " to be gi\c-n to the \elt where they 

 grow. The acacia sometimes has the appearance ot a 

 tree, sometimes, especiall\' when \'oung, ot a bush. Other 



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