294 A NATURALIST IN MID-AFRICA. 



perience, in windy or otherwise unsuitable places, 

 and must be expected to fail. Still, allowing for 

 all these drawbacks, there is not, I think, any- 

 where in the world a better prospect for a young 

 fellow not afraid of work and with ,£500 or £1,000 

 capital than to go coffee planting in the Shire 

 highlands. 



In order to see what the future may be expected 

 to bring forth, it is, perhaps, best to give a short 

 account of the physical features of the country. 



The Stevenson Boad plateau or the Congo- 

 Zambesi watershed has been already mentioned. 

 It rises to about 5,600 feet at Mambwe Mission, 

 and thence appears to continue across a country 

 of which very little is known. 



The part which is now being opened up by our- 

 selves is really the Shire and Lake Nyassa valley. 

 It is bounded on the west by a high plateau ridge, 

 which starts in the highlands of Nyika at some 

 7,000 feet high, and is continued southwards 

 through Angoniland and the Kirk range. 



On the other side of this ridge are the different 

 tributaries of the Luang wa branch of the Zambesi. 



On the east of Nyassa is a similar watershed, 

 which separates it from the various branches of 

 the liovuma river, flowing due east through Ger- 

 man and Portuguese East Africa to the sea near 

 Cape Delgado. This begins with the Livingstone 

 mountains, which are of a plateau character and 

 some 10,000 feet high. They sink greatly in 



