KIKUYU TO THE VICTORIA. 33 



the whole drainage area of the Victoria Nyanza. 

 I found them all through Karagwe and Urundi, 

 and even close to the watershed of Tanganyika, 

 and at a level of some 4,300 feet. (Above this 

 latter altitude the valleys are usually narrow 

 ravines.) In this part of the country the effect 

 of grass fires is very curious indeed. Above 5,000 

 feet they are of no importance, but below this 

 level they completely change the appearance of 

 the country. One reason why the curious tree 

 Euphorbias are so common lies in the fact that 

 they are almost entirely unaffected by these fires. 

 In places particularly subject to conflagration, 

 there are only a very few trees which are able to 

 grow, and these usually have a very thick, gummy 

 bark, which seems to act as an insulator. These 

 trees are of very different orders — a kind of Protea, 

 an Eugenia, &c. 



These African fires are not in the least like the 

 American pictures, where one sees mustangs with 

 their eyes protruding, and a happy family of 

 jaguars, snakes, pronghorns, &c, all fleeing for 

 their lives. It is a very insignificant line of 

 blazing grass, which one can easily step across. 

 It is sometimes stopped by a hard-trodden native 

 path and almost always by a river, where the thick 

 foliage of the trees keeps sufficient permanent 

 moisture to save all except the outlying branches 

 from being even singed. It has a curious effect on 



some of the smaller shrubs, which patiently put 



4 



