METEOROLOGY AND CLIMATE. 201 



and continuous strain ; but on the whole I do not 

 think any one should remain for a longer period 

 than five years without a holiday, and I am afraid 

 permanent homes are out of the question. It is a 

 country of the very greatest value to Great Britain, 

 for young men can go there even now and by coffee 

 planting, and probably other things in the future, 

 obtain enough to form a comfortable livelihood for 

 themselves, on which they may retire. 



The advantage of a colony in this respect is 

 incalculable, and, of course, though it does not 

 appear directly in any statistics, is sufficient to 

 make probably three times our expenditure on 

 British Central Africa justifiable. 



As for the oil-palm region, which contains the 

 alluvial valleys of Lake Nyassa and the Upper 

 and Lower Shire, there is, I am afraid, no doubt 

 that the climate is bad. It is probably not worse 

 than, e.g., Mombasa, but it is very easy to see 

 that it produces great lassitude and loss of energy 

 in Europeans. There is also fever, which occa- 

 sionally is of a very bad type ; and I think no one 

 should remain on these lower grounds for a longer 

 period than three years at a time. Still it is 

 necessary to make a very large deduction for the 

 discomfort and privations which most have to 

 undergo at present, and what I have heard of 

 Calcutta in the early, almost prehistoric, factory 

 days seems infinitely worse than the present state 

 of things, e.g.] at Chiromo. 



