V 



STEPPE-FIRES 



EVERY year wild-fires sweep over the length and 

 breadth of the East African steppe. Now and 

 then, when the dry season sets in, one may notice on 

 the far horizon flaming lights which turn red as the 

 day declines and the night advances. They are distant 

 steppe-fires in parts of the country where the grass has 

 already grown dry. When they occur on distant high 

 plateaus they look like gigantic torches throwing their 

 ghastly light far into the surrounding darkness. 



When the dryness has spread over the whole country, 

 then the traveller, as well as the native, will set fire to 

 the grass — the traveller to remove it as an obstacle, 

 the native to prepare the ground so that with the first 

 rain-shower the earth may yield fresh grass for grazing. 



The fires move on steadily, but slowly — not, as one 

 may read in many a book of travel, with destructive, 

 lightning rapidity — eating up grasses, bushes, small 

 trees, and even attacking with their fiery tongues sturdy 

 trees of gigantic size. But it is an ill fire which docs not 

 bring good to somebody. In the tracks of the fire, mar- 



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