GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF AP'RICA. 241 



stone, based upon various granites, which in some places crop out, 

 picturesquely disposed in blocks and boulders and huge domes and 

 lumpy masses; ironstone is met with at a depth varying from five 

 to twelve feet, and bits of coarse ore have been found in Unyan- 

 yembe by digging not more than four feet in a chance s])()t, 



"Waves of rolling land." 



During the rains the grass conceals the soil, but in the dry 

 seasons the land is gra)', lighted up by golden stubbles, and dotted 

 with wind-distorted trees, shallow swamps of emerald grass, and 

 wide streets of dark mud. Dwarfed stumps and charred "black 

 jacks" deform the fields, which are sometimes ditched or hedged 

 in, whilst a thin forest of parachute-shaped thorns diversifies the 

 waves of rolling land and earth hills, spotted wath sunburned stone. 

 The reclaimed tracts and clearings are divided from one another by 

 strips of primeval jungle, varying from two to twelve miles in length, 

 and, as in other parts of Africa, the country is dotted with "fairy 

 mounts" — dwarf mounds — the ancient sites of trees now crumbled 

 to dust, and the debris of insect architecture. Villages, the glory 

 of all African tribes, are seen at short intervals rising only a little 

 above their impervious walls of lustrous green milk-bush, with its 

 corat-shaped arms, variegating the well-hoed plains; whilst in the 

 pasture lands herds of many-colored cattle, plump, round-barrelled 

 and high-humped, like Indian breeds, and mingled flocks of goats 

 and sheep, dispersed over the landscape, suggest ideas of barbarous 

 comfort and plenty. . 



It is astonishing what luxury is conveyed into the heart of 

 Africa by Arab merchant-princes. The fertile plain about their 

 villages, kept in the highest state of cultivation, yields marvellous 

 abundance and endless variety of vegetables, and supports vast 

 herds of cattle, and sheep and goats innumerable; while just above 

 the houses the orange, lemon, papaws and mangoes may be seen 

 thriving finel}'. 



Add to these the tea, coffee, sugar, spices, jellies, curries, wine, 

 brandy, biscuits, sardines, salmon, and such fine cloths as they need 

 for their own use, brought from the coast every 3'ear by their 



H. B. G.— ItJ 



