With Flashlight and Rifle -* 



Some two days' journey distant from Kilimanjaro 

 rises the neighbouring sinister-looking Mount Meru, nearly 

 5,000 metres high, and still further away, in the direction 

 of the Victoria Xyanza, several separate hills and volcanoes 

 are ranged. In the midst of this world of mountains there 

 extends before us in the bright sunshine an immeasurable 

 plateau, the " High Velts," at an elevation of some 

 thousands of teet above the level of the sea. According- to 



e> 



the season- whether in the Masika, the season of 

 heavy rain, or the drought Nyika is to be seen garbed 

 in a green shimmer of young grass and adorned for miles 

 by separate rain-water streams like silver threads, or looking 

 brown and grim under a desert of decayed vegetation. In 

 the latter case our eyes find resting-places here and there 

 in the valleys in which acacias, the ever-green Terminalia, 

 or other flowers and shrubs, find moist ground whereby to 

 preserve their freshness. It would be difficult for any but 

 a botanist to describe the character of this plant world. 

 Professor Voikens has done so, in his work on Kilimanjaro, 

 in a masterly manner. 



Later we come across vast open spaces flooded in 

 rainy seasons, but in the time of drought covered with 

 a white, salty incrustation which only permits of the 

 sparsest vegetable life, with now and again patches of 

 green or sun-scorched grass. We may find acacia-bushes, 

 which stretch for immeasurable distances, or thorn-trees 

 that look like fruit-trees, and indeed cause the name of 

 " fruit gardens " to be given to the velt where they 

 grow. The acacia sometimes has the appearance of a 

 tree, sometimes, especially when young, of a bush. Other 



50 



