FEMALE grant's GAZELLES TAKING TO FLIGHT 



XXIX 



Velt ConfIas:rations 



EVERY year a large portion ot the East African 

 velt is devastated by great conflagrations. Coal- 

 black tree-trunks are seen where the rainy season had 

 left all fresh and green. Everything has been quickly 

 burnt by the whirlwind of flames that has rushed through 

 the district. 



At the commencement ot the drought you see at 

 nightfall a spot of fire here and there in the distance. 

 The small red glow increases until the whole horizon is- 

 ablaze. These are conflagrations in places where the 

 grass is already dried up, perhaps on the slopes of distant 

 hills, which burn night after ni<>"ht like huo'e bonfires, 

 lighting up the country for miles. Wherever prairies are 

 in" Africa this state of things is found. My friend 

 Dr. Richard Kandt, the discoverer of the sources of the 

 Nile, has the same thine to tell us about Central Africa 

 in his remarkable book Caput Nili. 



When the dryness has become general, the native 

 himself as well as the traveller will often light a fire, sa 



635 



