METEOROLOGY AND GEOLOGY 303 



to November. The heaviest rains probably fjill at this time. In dry 

 seasons severe droughts may occur. It is usually a country of strong 

 winds, the winds blowing down the valley of the Nile from the south 

 during the summer months and from the north during the winter. 



(5) The Alpine Region. — This of course is very small in area, and 

 includes the Ruwenzori range above 8,000 feet in altitude, two or three 

 points in Ankole of 8,000 feet or over, the tops of some of the high 

 mountains in the Nile and Central Provinces, the upper regions of Mount 

 Elgon, and the mountain ridges on the Nandi Plateau of Chibcharanan, 

 Elgeyo, Londiani, and the high mountains immediately to the west of 

 Lake Naivasha. The average temperature in these regions may be placed 

 hypothetically at 45". The temperatures on the snow and ice may descend 

 to perhaps '25\ 



The degree of navigability of lakes and rivers is indicated with 

 approximate correctness on tlie accompanying map. 



The climate in tropical Africa does not always bear a direct ratio to 

 health. Questions of salubrity and insalubrity depend on many other 

 local conditions than the degree of heat or cold, or the variation between 

 extremes of temperature. It may he said witliout exaggeration that 

 between the Zambezi on the south and the Albert Nyanza on the north, 

 between Kilimanjaro on the east and the Cameroons and Senegal on the 

 west, the climate of Central Africa is generally agreeable, and much more 

 equable than in tropical Asia. The whole of Uganda, except parts of the 

 Rudolf and Nile Provinces, has an agreeable climate, yet all parts of the 

 Protectorate below 4,500 feet in altitude tend to be unhealthy. This 

 would seem to be due, in the first place, to the germs of diseases which 

 are generated in marsliy districts ; and, secondly, to the mosquitoes and 

 other agents for the introduction of those germs into the human frame. 

 If, therefore, some means could be found of abolishing the conditions which 

 produce those germs, or destroying the agents by which they reach the 

 human blood or digestive organs, the greater part of tropical Africa which 

 is not subjected to the exceptional heat and moisture of the west coast, 

 of Zanzibar, and of the Upi)er Nile A'alley, would be fairly healthy for 

 European occupation. Nevertheless, I doubt whether in any districts which 

 are below 5,500 feet in altitude within the tropics the European race 

 could perpetuate itself from generation to generation without deteriorating. 

 Fortunately there are considerable areas within the East African Pro- 

 tectorates above this height, and, if intervening districts could be robbed 

 of their danger by the extinction of malaria and dysentery, or the means 

 by which we become infected with malaria or dysentery, tropical Africa 

 would lose its terrors, and produce and maintain several white nations. 



