196 SWAEMS OF TSETSE IN DRY PJVER-BED. 



Tsetse-fly — although swarming in the neighbourhood, and, 

 in fact, throughout all this belt of country between the 

 foot-hills of the Makomwe mountains and the Zambesi — 

 did not trouble us. In the town it was by no means 

 constant in its attendance ; in one place they might be 

 innumerable, but a mile further cast, few could be seen " 

 (Vol. L, p. 293). 



Tsetse-fly on the Mukumbra (VmJcumbura) Biver (called 

 Ukumbiira on author's map): 1884. — "Soon we arrived 

 at the Mukumbra River, which may be described as a long 

 winding stretch of sand. It forms a very wide road 

 (broadening in some places to three, four, or six hundred 

 yards) through the vast forest, its shifting sands extending 

 to the union with the Umzengaizi River about 12 miles 

 south of the Zambesi. . . , Upon these low and dry sands 

 we saw the spoor of almost every description of wild animal. 

 . . .It was now late and we had had a very hard day ; 

 the first on which I had got a real ' benefit ' from the 

 Tsetse-fly. The condition of torment which I thought 

 tiresome before, I would now have welcomed as a state of 

 comparative bliss. The heat had been intense. Bathed 

 in perspiration we walked through the shifting sand, which 

 yielded like soft snow under the feet, while the stifling 

 sultry air was literally alive with the Tsetse-fly, against 

 Avhose maddening attacks clothes were no protection, our 

 only safeguard being to beat them off with twigs and 

 small branches of shrubs, giving a by no means pleasant 

 exercise under a torrid heat. For the same pui'pose the 

 natives generally use the tail of a buffalo mounted on a 

 wooden handle, an implement with which they swish their 

 naked bodies while travelling through the fly-infested 

 country. . . . Fortunately at night the flies take a rest ; but 

 I have felt them ' stick ' more than once during nocturnal 

 hours. General experience, however, shows that they do 

 not give much trouble after sundown " (Vol. I., pp. SOS- 

 SOT). 



Tsetse-fly between Chibinga and Tette : 1884. — " Tsetse- 

 fly varied in numbers. Sometimes they were swarming, 

 at other times few were to be seen " (Vol. II., p. 24). 



Tsetse-fly and goats in the Zambesi valley, to the icest 

 of Tette: 1884. — "The Tsetse abounds throughout the 

 widespread valley. It has been remarked that the goat 



