THE EQUATORIAL ZONE. 315 



The scenery in some of the open tracts of this part of 

 Africa surprises us by its park -like character. It is described 

 by travellers as " exquisite, presenting hill and dale, distant 

 mountains, streams, and verdure; picturesque but small 

 villages, patches of Indian corn, and clumps of shrubs and 

 trees interspersed through a green plain." The Mimosa- 

 trees, with their finely-cut foliage, form a beautiful feature 

 in the vegetation ; and the whole is enlivened by singing- 

 birds, some of them not unlike the nightingale. Bound the 

 Negro villages Millet, Maize, and Yams are cultivated ; and 

 Eice seems to be commonly seen growing wild in the hot- 

 test parts of Africa. 



As to the African forests, it is impossible to think with- 

 out a little sinking of the heart about venturing into them ; 

 we should be so haunted with the possibility of being 

 obliged to form a more intimate acquaintance than we 

 wished with all kinds of wild beasts, from elephants and 

 lions to hyenas and chimpanzees, that to attain sufficient 

 composure for botanizing, would require an unusual degree 

 of nerve ; and in this land of snakes it is not an impossible 

 contingency, that, having sat clown to rest, as we think, on 

 the fallen branch of a tree, we might discover that we had 

 taken a seat by mistake on a boa-constrictor in an after- 



