November 15, 1894] 



NA TURE 



67 



jn the hot season, and where in the cold season bitter froits pre- 

 vail. Unfortunately, it is impossible to reach this delectable 

 .land from the coast withuat tiaversing the hot and unhealthy 

 valleys of the Zambezi and Shire. 



There is an average rainfall ol 55 inches throughout the Pro- 

 tectorate, but it is not altogether uniform in character, some 

 districts receiving about 75 inches, and others not more than 35 

 inches. Still, it is decidedly a well-watered country, endowed 

 with many perennial streams, only a small number of which 

 dry up in the height of the dry season. Consequently, it is a 

 land which can almost everywhere be irrigated during the dry 

 season, and can thus grow a continual succession of crops. The 

 water is almost everywhere wholesome to drink. 



The great attraction of the country lies in its beautiful 

 scenery, in its magnificent blue lakes, its tumultuous 

 cascades and cataracts, its grand mountains, its goMen 

 plains and dark green forests. A pleasant and peculiar feature 

 also of the western portion of the Protectorate is the rolling 

 grassy downs, almost denuded of trees, covered with short tur(, 

 <juile healthy, and free from the Tsetse fly ; these no doubt will 

 in the future become actual sites of European colonies, districts 

 in which Europeans can rear their children under healthful 

 conditions. 



The lofiy plateau of Mlanje is a little world in itself, with 

 the exhilarating climate of Northern Europe. These plains 

 and valleys ace gay with blue ground-orchids, with a purple 

 iris, and with yellow everlasting ilowers. Here and there great 

 rocky boulders stand up in stern relief against the velvet turf, 

 and out of these elevated plains again rise other mountains, 

 gloomy in aspect and remarkably grand in outline. The 

 loiesis, on cloicr inspection, turn out to be mainly composed 

 •jf the handsome conifer IVuldringlonia Why lei. 



No one has succeeded in reaching the highest summit of 

 Mlanje. Mr. Johnston ascended about as lar as 9300 feet, 

 and, estimating that there were fully 700 feet more ot'ascent, 

 approximately fixed the highest point at 10,000 feet. The 

 ascent of this high peak is tendered very difficult by the enor- 

 mous size of the boulders with which it is strewn. The whole 

 mountain mass of Mlanje probably occupies, with its outlying 

 peaks connected by saddles, an area of 1600 square miles, of 

 which 200 .'■quare miles consist of these level or gently un- 

 dulating plateaux, admirably suited for European settlements. 

 -Many of the salient features of Mlanje are repeated in the 

 striking mountains of Nyasaland, with the exception of the 

 cedars, which, however, are reporteil to exist on one or two of 

 the highest peaks ol Zomba, but have never been seen else- 

 w here. 



The low plains surrounding Lake Nyasa and bordering the 

 rivers ofler a sharp contrast to the plateaux. Zebras, harte- 

 beests, water-buck, pallah, roan antelopes, and reed-buck may 

 be found in numbers, often dwelling gregariously together 

 t)n these hot plains ; and a few vultures, eagles, kites, and 

 Marabout storks wheel and float overhead in the dazzling 

 bluish-white sky, on the look-out for offal. The sable antelope, 

 the eland, the kudu, and the bush-buck seem to prefer the 

 sparsely forested hill-slopes to the flat plain, where there is 

 usually much less cover. The rhinoceros still ranges over these 

 plains, and wallows in the stagnant pools of the half-dried 

 livers. The heat prevailing on the plains in the summer-time 

 is very great — almost overpowering — but in the winter and 

 spring the air is exhilarating. 



The Uritish settlements have now a settled and comfortable 

 appearance, with uniformed native policemen and trained 

 natives from the Mission schools working as printers and even 

 as telegraph operators at HIantyre. The most interesting feature 

 tn the neighbourhood of these settlements at the present time 

 is the coffee-plantation, which, to a great extent, is the cause 

 .and support of their prosperity. The variety which is cultivated 

 in the Shire highlands was actually introduced from Scotland, 

 having been derived from a small plant sent from the Edinburgli 

 £otaiiical Gardens to Blantyre about sixteen years ago. From 

 this plant the greater part of the five million cofiee-trees now 

 .growing in this part of Africa ate descended, while the original 

 mother tree is still alive in the Mission grounds at Biantyre. 

 The climate and soil of Nyasalantl would seem to suit the coffee- 

 tree to perfection, and iheciops given are unusually large. As 

 jet Nyasaland has been free Irom the cofi'ee disease, which, as 

 in Brazd and India, does not appear to be able to penetrate far 

 inland from the coast, though it has already committed ravages 

 iu German East Africa and in Natal. 



EARLY BRITISH RACES.^ 

 TDEFORE proceeding to trace the early history of man in 

 ^ Britain, it is necessary to refer briefly to the physical 

 changes which geologists tell us have occurred since the close 

 of the Tertiary period in the configuration and temperature of 

 the north-western portion of F^urope. 



At the beginning of the Plei>tocene period, the temperature 

 of Northern Europe became colder, and an ice-cap, like that 

 which now covers Greenland, gradually extended itself pro- 

 bably as far south as Middlesex, and covered the greater 

 part of Wales and the northern half of Ireland. This epoch 

 is known as the Great Ice Age. .M that time also the land 

 was more elevated than now, so that Great Britain and Ireland 

 formed part of the continent of Europe, and the western coast- 

 line extended some three or four hundred miles further 

 into the Atlantic Ocean than it does at present. This period 

 of cold was succeeded by a more genial one, during which, 

 but before the ice had disappeared, a great submergence of land 

 and of the glaciers still upon it took place, varying at different 

 parts of the country from 600 ft. to over 3000 ft. The 

 climate again became colder, and on the higher parts of 

 Wales, the North of England, and Scotland, glaciers were 

 formed once more, but not to the same extent as for- 

 merly. Then followed, in late Pleistocene times.a re-ele- 

 vation of the land to at least 600 feet above the present 

 level. Great Britain and Ireland once more became joined 

 to the continent, and the climate became temperate. In all 

 probability the geographical conditions of Britain, or rather 

 the British corner of Europe, in early and late Pleistocene 

 times, were almost identical. Finally the land connection with 

 the continent became severed by submergence, which went on 

 till almost the present coast-line was reached ; the sea once 

 more rolled in over the beds of the German Ocean and the 

 English Channel. These changes in the geographical confor- 

 mation of the north-western part of Europe took place slowly, 

 and were consequently s[)read over an immense interval of time. 



According to some eminent geologists, man first took up his 

 abode in the British portion of Europe, either during the early 

 glacial or pre-glacial period. The evidence of his existence 

 here at that early period rests upon the discovery of many flint 

 implements of peculiar and special type on certain high chalk 

 plateaus in Kent in drift renting on Pleiocene beds, in drift de- 

 posits of Norfolk and Suffolk, and in certain caves in which 

 glacial drift is believed to be deposited over the flints. All 

 these implements are of the rudest make, more or less stained, 

 like the drift flints with which they are associ-ited, of a deep 

 brown colour. They show a considerable amount of wear, as 

 though they had been ruljbed and knocked about a good deal, 

 so that the worked edges ate commonly rounded off and blunt. 

 In few instances have the implements been wrought out of 

 larger flints, and the amount of trimming they have received is 

 very slight, and has heen generally made on the edges of rude 

 natural flints picked up from old flint drift ; indeed, sometimes 

 she work is so slight as to be scarcely apparent ; in other speci- 

 mens it is sufficient to show design and object. These imple- 

 ments indicate the very infancy of art, and are probably the 

 earliest efforts of man to fabricate tools and weapons from other 

 substances than wood or bone. They give us some slight in- 

 sight into the occupations and surroundings of the race who used 

 them, as they appear to have been employed for breaking bones 

 to extract the marrow, scraping skins, and rounding sticks and 

 bones for use as tools or (loles. From the absence of large mas- 

 sive implements, it would seem as though offensive and defen- 

 sive weapons had not been much needed, either from the 

 absence of large mammalia, or from the habits and character of 

 these early people. Many archaeologists are not saii^hed with 

 the 'evidence )et adduced as to the age of these flints, conse- 

 quently of man's existence in Britain at this early ilaie. and the 

 (juestion cannot be considered settled one way or omcr. 



Whatever may be the ultimate decision as to the existence of 

 l)re-glacial man in Britain, all geologists and others are agreed 

 that alter the glacial period had pa-sed away, and Britain had 

 once mote become a part of the continent of Europe after its 

 submergence, a race of men known to us as Palaeolithic man 

 migrated into the country from the continent, across the valley 

 of the English Channel, in late Pleistocene times. Man of this 

 period is known to us from remains found in the river-drifts of 

 1 .A lecture delivered .it the Royal Inslilulion by Dr. J. G. Garson. We 

 are indebted to Prof, li^yd Dawk.ns fvrpcnnission to use the acconipanyins 

 illusliations. 



NO. 1307, VOL. 51] 



