In Wildest Africa -»> 



The quantities of fish I have found in every pool in 

 these swamps defy description — I am anxious to insist 

 upon this point — and this although almost all the count- 

 less birds depend on them chiefly for their food. Busy 

 beaks and bills ravage every pool and the w^hole surface 

 of the lagoon-like swamp for young fish and fry. The 

 herons and darters [Assingha rufa, Lacep. Daud.) manage 

 even to do some successful fishing in the deeper waters 

 of the river. And yet, in spite of all these fish-eaters, the 

 river harbours almost a sttperabundance of fish} 



Wandering along by the river, we take in all these 

 impressions. For experiences of quite another kind, we 

 have only to make for the neighbouring velt, now arid 

 again and barren, and thence to ascend the steep ridges 

 leading up to the tableland of Nyika. 



Behind us we leave the marshy region of the river 

 and the morass of reeds. Before us rises Nyika, crudely 

 yellow, and the laterite earth of the velt glowing red 

 under the blazing sun. The contrast is strong between 

 the watery wilderness from which we have emerged and 

 these higher ranges of the velt with their strange vegeta- 

 tion. Here we shall find many species of animals that we 

 should look for in vain down there below, animals that live 

 differently and on scanty food up here, even in the dry 

 season. The bufialoes also know where to go for fresh 

 young grass even when they are in the marshes, and they 

 reject the ripened green grass. The dwellers on the velt 

 are only to be found amidst the lush vegetation of the 



^ The author would like to bring this fact home to all destroyers of 

 herons, kingfishers, and diving-birds. 



