﻿230 MESSES. A. E. ANDEEW AND T. E. G. BAILEY [May I9IO, 



or senile, and offer a striking contrast with their juvenile neighbours 

 across the watershed. Numerous hills and mountains occur on the 

 Shire Highland platform, which also bears two parasitic plateaux 

 known as Zomba and Mlanje. The Mlanje Plateau is somewhat 

 higher than that of Zomba, and should rather be described as a 

 collection of mountain-peaks rising from a common base to nearly 

 10,000 feet. Both these mountain-masses are made up of granite 

 or syenite, and thus differ in composition from the bulk of the 

 Shire Highlands, which has been carved out of less resistant gneiss. 

 In this, and in other respects, the Shire Highlands are closely com- 

 parable with the Neno Plateau just described. Probably they once 

 formed one and the same platform, crossed by rivers draining east- 

 wards which were subsequently beheaded by the Shire Valley. 



The Central Angonaland and Marimba Plateau. 



This forms a very nearly flat expanse in Central Nyasaland, 

 occupying an area of over 1200 square miles, and with an average 

 elevation of perhaps 4000 feet. The plateau tapers southwards 

 between the Dzalanyama Pange on the west, and the Chongoni and 

 Dowa Mountains on the east. Its eastern edge runs roughly north 

 and south, and in the north slopes at first gradually eastwards 

 and then more or less rapidly down to the wide plain which here 

 fringes Lake Nyasa. In the southern and central portions the edge 

 is bounded by ranges or mountain-masses which form a sort of raised 

 lip or rim to the plateau. 



The drainage of the plateau is effected by three rivers, known 

 respectively as the Dwangwa, the Bua, and the Lilongwe. The 

 last-named river rises in the Dzalanyama "Range and flows east- 

 wards, at first down the general slope of the plateau. Finally, 

 however, as the ground rises towards the eastern rim of the plateau, 

 the river is forced to cut its channel against the general slope, 

 and eventually breaks its way right through the eastern mountains 

 in a shallow gorge. 



The Pua Piver, the largest of the three, flows for about 60 miles 

 in a north-easterly direction across the sandy flats on the top of 

 the plateau. Near the eastern edge it sinks gradually into a gorge, 

 and thus drops by degrees down to the lake-plains. The Dwangwa 

 lies at the northern limit of the plateau, and on its way to the 

 lake crosses the foot of the Vipya Mountains in a fine gorge. 



A magnificent view of the plateau is obtained from two small 

 hills, Chiramimbi and Panavikale, which fill in a gap along the 

 western border between the Port Manning and Dzalanyama ranges. 

 To the east of these hills, and as far as the eye can see in places, 

 stretches a flat plain covered with dark forest and crossed with 

 streaks of lighter green running in a north-easterly direction. These 

 lighter streaks are the shallow grass-covered dambos or stream- 

 grooves which carry the waters of the western slopes across the 

 gently-inclined surface of the plateau to the steep drop which faces 



