ESCAl'E OF PONIES FEOM FLY-DLSEASE. 221 



Chimoio without suffering any ill effects ; they served the 

 party until the conclusion of the work, and were finally 

 sold at a profit. No particular precautions against the 

 ' fly ' were adopted, except occasional brushing with green 

 boughs. It is quite certain that the Tsetse-flies settled 

 on the horses in considerable numbers, and remained 

 quite long enough to allow of their biting. It was only 

 during one day, however, that the flies were present in 

 large numbers ; this was on the course of the railway, 

 between 38 and 45 miles from Fontesvilla.* 



" For the first 20 miles the line of railway travei-ses a 

 perfectly flat, nearly treeless, alluvial plain, covered with 

 long grass and teeming with big game, including lions, 

 buffaloes, most of the South African species of antelope, 

 wart hogs, and wild boars " (p. 29). 



Tsetse-flij in MasJionaland. — " White ants and borers 

 are the worst enemies of the settlers in the high country, 

 while the Tsetse-fly causes incalculable mischief in the 

 low-lying districts " (p. 38). 



135. 1895. Edouard Foa. 



" Mes Gkandes Chasses dans L'Afrique Centkale " 

 (Paris : Librairie de Firmin-Didot et C*' ), pp. 22, 28-33, 

 220-221. 



[Translation.] " The day of our arrival on the banks 

 of the Crocodile River, we were on the eve of our troubles. 

 . . . There was something more, that we learnt next day : 

 we were entering the region infested by the terrible 

 Tsetse-fly, and we must expect to meet with it at any 

 moment. It would be the death of our oxen ; there was 

 no remedy in our power, we could only resign ourselves to 

 our fate " (p. 22). 



" There is nothing repulsive or remarkable in its [the 

 Tsetse's] appearance to anyone who does not know it ; its 

 flight is exceedingly quick, and it is impossible to distinguish 

 it in the air before it has fed ; when its abdomen is full of 

 blood, its flight becomes heavy and it at once hides itself 

 in order to digest its meal in peace. Owing to its quick- 

 ness, it is impossible to catch it like an ordinary fly. 

 When it settles, it does so so gently that one does not feel 

 it ; it remains thus motionless for fifteen or twenty seconds, 



* The startiug-point of the Beira railway. 



