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E.—GEOGRAPHY pric. 
railway zone. This latter, with its greater amount of cultivated land, is 
still free of fly to the edge of the great escarpment, and the same is gener- 
ally true of its continuation north-eastward along the divide between the 
Chambezi and Luangwa; Broken Hill and Mkushi even report a re- 
duction in fly. The Luangwa fly belt shuts off the clear area of the 
Nyasaland border, and at the head of the valley the pest is encroaching on 
the plateau land. The tsetse distribution is more patchy in the northern 
areas. Generally speaking, the higher lands are the freer. In Fort 
Rosebery the fly is local, and Kasama records a reduction ; but evidently 
there are few areas which can safely be reached by cattle. 
The map indicates clearly the prevalence of tsetse in the hot lowlands, 
but the controlling factor on the plateaus, which is doubtless the character 
of the vegetation, cannot be examined until a survey of that element has 
been made. The nature of the wild fauna is a contributory factor ; and 
while the reports contain useful information regarding the wild animals 
which are hunted or cause depredations to crops, it is insufficient to allow 
of any important deduction. 
CATTLE. 
While cattle are restricted to the areas free of fly, they are by no means 
evenly distributed throughout these parts. Nor are they of equal 
significance in the life of their owners, chiefly on account of varying tribal 
tradition in regard to cattle, but also from the incidence of European 
influence. In Barotse it is the Maroze chiefs and indunas who are the 
chief cattle owners, and the herds vary according to the available pasture, 
being greatest on the Zambezi plain (in Mongu c. 50,000 head) and 
decreasing north and south. Cattle in general are regarded merely as 
wealth, chiefly in relation to the marriage security, sometimes as a source 
of meat and of hides, more rarely of milk. But in contact with Europeans 
and a market, the tribesman tends to devote his animals to work, notably 
with the acquisition of the plough in the alluvial plains, of two-wheeled 
carts on suitable ground and of sledges elsewhere. It is chiefly in the 
vicinity of the railway that the natives are following European guidance 
in the matter of breeding and of dipping. Elsewhere the herds receive 
little attention, and consequently the stock is poor. Furthermore, the 
Barotse cattle were stricken with pleuro-pneumonia in 1915 and their 
numbers reduced by perhaps 50 percent. In the central Districts, on the 
other hand, stock is increasing, owing to the natives’ contact with Europeans. 
This feature is most pronounced in Mazabuka, where the Tonga and 
Lundwi have over 108,000 head, and as these have recently been driven 
into the reserves, there is a risk of overstocking. This reacts not merely 
directly on the animals, but indirectly and permanently upon the land, 
-which is much more serious. It results in rapid erosion of the soil 
wherever there are slopes. 
Cattle, of small size and few in number, are kept in the Zambezi lowland 
along the river banks and partly shut off from the plateau by a fly belt. 
Similarly a few animals only remain in the hot Luano valley of Mkushi, 
though formerly the herds there were sufficient to attract the Ngoni 
raiders from the east. The Ngoni and other tribes of the Nyasaland 
