Il6 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



falls are 420 feet high and about a mile and a quarter wide, thus ex- 

 ceeding Niagara Falls by a considerable margin. But the view of 

 Niagara is much more impressive because the whole of the falls may 

 be seen at once and the volume of water is little obscured by spray. 

 The Victoria Falls can be seen in their entirety only from the air and, 

 especially at high water, the view is almost obliterated by the spray. 



One other point of particular interest in the province, especially to 

 the archeologists, was the Zimbabwe Ruins, about 12 miles south of 

 Fort Victoria, the nearest railroad station. The ruins are in part well 

 preserved and indicate that an earlier race extracted gold here and 

 used the stone structures for defense. 



The excursion ended at Beira in Portuguese East Africa, where 

 the party embarked for home. It was interesting to note that four 

 important food plants in South Africa came originally from America, 

 maize (called mealies in Africa), white potatoes, sweet potatoes, and 

 cassava. The last is a Brazilian plant whose fleshy starchy roots yield 

 the tapioca of our markets. 



Some of the party went directly to London; others left the boat 

 at Mombasa and spent two weeks at Nairobi. In company with 

 Mr. Cotton, Keeper of the Herbarium at Kew, and a few others 

 I disembarked at Tanga in northern Tanganyika. On the way from 

 Beira we stopped a few hours at Dar-es-Salaam and Zanzibar. 



Mr. Cotton and I first went to Amani where is located the Amani 

 Agricultural Institute. This was previously a scientific station in Ger- 

 man East Africa. There are here good laboratories and a herbarium. 

 We next went by rail to Moshi for the ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro 

 but found that the most favorable starting point was Marangu, a 

 village 10 miles to the northeast. From Marangu we had an easy 

 climb on mule back by a good trail, taking a cook and four porters. 

 The first night was spent at Bismark Hut, a resthouse near the upper 

 limit of the forest at about 8,000 feet. The second and third nights 

 were spent at Peters Hut, a resthouse in the alpine region at about 

 12,000 feet. On the third day I ascended to the limit of vegetation 

 at about 14,000 feet where there was a good view of Kibo, the western 

 rounded snow-capped peak of Kilimanjaro ( 17,910 feet). The alpine 

 grasses belong to such temperate genera as Festuca, Poa, Trisetum, 

 and Deschampsia. On the fourth day we descended to Marangu. 



Our next stop was Nairobi which we reached by rail from Taveta 

 via Voi. Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, lies on a grassy plateau at an 

 altitude of 5,500 feet, inland from Mombasa 330 miles. This is the 

 point from which parties start on the big game hunts to the surround- 

 ing territory. 



