128 RUPERT W. JACK. 



intervening period there is only one record of two consecutive wet seasons comparable 

 with those of 1917-18 and 1918-19. These are the seasons 1889-90 and 1890-1. 

 The total fall in these two seasons at Bulawayo considerably surpassed that of the 

 recent two seasons, the number of inches recorded being 87*81 in the earher couplet 

 against 76*13 for the later. Was this heavy fall followed shortly by any marked 

 reduction of tsetse ? There is some suggestion to the effect that it was, at least in 

 certain parts of the territory, although it is of such an indirect and unsatisfactory 

 natm^e that it is practically valueless. 



It is curious, however, that during this very time, a marked recovery from a 

 period of decrease seems to have taken place in the region of the Zambesi. In a 

 foot-note to a paper by the writer (Bull. Ent. Res. v, p. 100), Captain Selous' 

 opinion is recorded that by 1888 " the belt shown to the west of the Victoria Falls 

 had disappeared," and " that much of the fly to the east of the Falls had also gone 

 by that date." This statement was doubtless substantially true in 1888, in fact 

 there is other evidence that fly was decreasing in this area during the preceding 

 years (v. Dr. Holub, Austen's Monograph, p. 203). Nevertheless Selous' statement 

 is misleading and should be corrected in case other investigators may use it as a 

 basis for argument. The writer has first-hand information to the effect that fly 

 was numerous between the Falls and the Zambesi-Chobe confluence in 1893, and 

 it is apparent that an increase of fly took place subsequent to 1888. The first-hand 

 evidence referred to is contained in a report by Mr. A. Giese, Cattle Inspector, to 

 the Chief Veterinary Surgeon, Sahsbury, dated 9th July 1918. The report is 

 worth quoting in full, although some of the matter does not bear on the present 

 argument. It appears that the fly did actually disappear from this part of the 

 country at the time of the rinderpest, whatever may have been the position of 

 aifairs near the Limpopo. 



Mr. Giese's report is as follows : — 



" 9.vii.l918. The following notes are reminiscently penned because they may 

 serve as a guide as to where to expect the tsetse-fly, now re-appearing west of the 

 Gwaai,* to spread to should this re-appearance be only a return to locahties driven 

 out from or killed by the rinderpest, and not as well to locahties which the fly had 

 already voluntarily disappeared from before the rinderpest arrived. 



" In 1861-2 Baldwin(?) brought the first waggons to Deka commencing the track 

 which eventually grew into what is now known as the Pandamatenga or western border 

 road. He had to leave his wagons at Deka and proceed to the Zambesi on foot as the 

 intervening country was infected by fly. 



" Somewhere about the middle seventies Geo. Westbeach established his later far- 

 known trading station at Pandamatenga, when the fly had receded further north 

 somewhere north of Gazume Vlei. At the same time, or a httle later, transport could 

 be taken to the Victoria Falls and to Bingua Spruit — about railway cottage 277 — from 

 where Westbeach' s waggons used to fetch grain traded in the fly-infested country 

 to the east ; also that broken stony country north of the present Matetsi siding was 

 beUeved to be free from fly right up to Victoria Falls. 



* No fly has as yet been found west of the Gwaai, but outbreaks of trypanosomiasis 

 have occurred during the past three wet seasons. 



