1896.] FROM NYA.SA-LAL?fD. 819 



and the beginning of May : it rained then almost every day, up to 

 the date of my departure on or about May 12th. 



" On the Lower Shiri plains the wet season does not set in 

 until later : no rain falls at Chiromo, I think, before the middle 

 of November. The last day or two of October, 1894, when 

 travelling by land from Chiromo to Blantyre, I carne in for light 

 rains on reaching the foot of the hills at the back of the Elephant 

 marsh. 



" Further north, on Lake Nyam, the rains commence later by 

 about a month or six weeks, on the mean : much, however, depends 

 on locality whether the country is plain or hilly, and, again, bare 

 or forested. 



" Take for instance Deep Bay, about 10 30' S. lat., and roughly 

 some ninety miles from the north end of the lake. Here there 

 are low hills attaining a height of some 400 feet above the lake, 

 and behind these again is low undulating country extending some 

 twelve or fifteen miles inland, to the foot of the Nyika plateau, 

 which attains on the mean a height of 7400 feet, the accepted 

 altitude of Lake Nyasa being some 1600 odd feet. 



" No rain falls at Deep Bay before the middle of November, 

 sometimes not until later. In 1893 there was no rain before 

 December, when there were two or three preliminary showers. 

 The heavy rains did not set in until January 8, 1894. In 1895 

 there were some very heavy preliminary rains in November ; the 

 heavy rains set in, in good earnest, with the waning moon in 

 December of that year. 



'* The rains continue until about the middle of May, sometimes a 

 week or two later; the heavy rains slack off at the end of March. 

 The heaviest rains of the year are between February and March ; 

 after that it rains fitfully, at intervals of every two or three 

 days. 



" In 1889 it rained all May, very heavily too during the first 

 half of the month. In 1893 there were two very heavy down- 

 pours on the 17th and 18th July, fully five or six weeks after the 

 dry season had set in. 



" In Nyika the rains commence a good deal earlier and last 

 longer. It is a very moist country indeed ; the higher parts of it 

 can hardly be said to have any dry season, as there are rainy mists 

 all the year through. The first rains fall about the end of 

 September or the beginning of October. The rainfall of these 

 mountains rather resembles that of Northern Europe, Ireland 

 especially : it rains thickly but lightly, and for days on end at 

 times ; there are not the heavy downpours which are experienced 

 at lower altitudes. 



"A hundred miles or so south of Deep Bay, at Bandawe, the 

 rains set in earlier than at Deep Bay ; this may be attributed to 

 the fact that Bandawe is a hilly promontory, abutting from high 

 mountainous country, some of the rainfall of which finds its way 

 down to the lake along the neck of connecting highland. If I 

 recollect rightly, I experienced a shower or two of rain when 



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