238 AFRICA 



euphorbias, aloes, and other water-storing or succulent 

 plants, are lightly scattered among the rocky scrub. 



Towards the great lakes Tanganyika and Nyassa the 

 surface heaves up into a regular hill-land ; the vegetation 

 becomes more exuberant and is diversified by light 

 forests, and the region passes gradually to the hill forests 

 of East Africa. 



Over the vast savana tableland, centres of inland 

 drainage, or tracts of doubtful gradient, have developed 

 large shallow swamps partly covered by tall reeds, some- 

 times girt with light jungles. On one of those swamps, 

 peculiar tribes, living entirely on the products of the 

 water, lead a primitive existence on floating reed-rafts, 

 screened from the whole world which they ignore. 

 Hunting in the once thickly stocked savana, cattle- 

 grazing, and agriculture are the simple occupations of 

 the inhabitants of this region. 



Gazalaud and Mozambique. South-east of the hill 

 region of east Africa the coastal plains and plateaus 

 expand greatly before reaching the edge of the high 

 austral African tablelands. They are too low to con- 

 dense the moisture of the south-east trade- winds, which 

 therefore sweep past them without materially benefiting 

 them. Broadly speaking, this is a repetition of the 

 conditions obtaining in Somaliland in a lesser degree. 

 The vegetation is correspondingly poor and, on the whole, 

 similar to that of the latter region, or of the lowland 

 of Mossamedes, that is, an open bush of thorn- wood 

 with but scant grass of a wiry description. The arid 

 landscape is broken by the deltas of the most important 

 rivers, especially along the lower courses of the Zambezi 

 and Limpopo, where the moist ground supports luxuriant 

 tropical evergreen forests, and swamps create around 

 them heavy jungles. 



