136 After Big Game in Central Africa 



the same appearance and covering hills, valleys, and 

 the banks of streams ; in the place of clumps of trees 

 or poplars carefully arranged in straight lines, substi- 

 tute wild trees, growing somewhat at random, with 

 dry foliage, because it is winter ; and you have before 

 you to a certain extent the grassy countryside of 

 Africa. For woods replace the pines of the Fontaine- 

 bleau forest, for example, by exotic trees growing 

 haphazard on a surface covered with short grass and 

 small plants, upon which neither road nor footpath is 

 traced, and you will understand the ordinary African 

 forest. Quite different is the equatorial forest, that 

 through which Stanley passed ; it is darker, larger, 

 more obstructed with lianas ; the surface of the ground 

 is covered with roots, and humidity is everywhere. 



But here we are still far from the equator, and 

 west of Lake Nyassa those masses of vegetation are 

 rare. In addition to a forest here and there and 

 grassy plains, imagine other regions with shorter 

 grass, about 3 feet in height, covered with stunted 

 and deformed trees 4 or 5 yards high, nearly re- 

 sembling apple-trees, but, alas ! fruitless. 



These three aspects, with an infinite variety of 

 views, are almost the only ones the grassy or wooded 

 plain, the grassy or wooded hills, forests here and 

 there. 



Now, in August it is exceedingly difficult to tra- 

 verse the country. Native footpaths are half covered 

 with grass ; everything is dry and brittle. It is then 

 that fires, called bush fires, 1 are lit by natives in the 



1 See Mes Grandes Chasses, pp. 122, 202, 237, 241. 



