28 DESCRIPTIVE 



rising to over 9800 feet. One of its chief claims 

 to consideration consists in the healthiness of its 

 temperate climate, whilst another connects itself 

 with the well-watered fertility of its entire 

 enormous extent. Upon its upland slopes is 

 found the only Central African cedar, a valuable 

 growth strikingly similar in appearance to the 

 Lebanon variety, and yielding quantities of 

 admirable, fragrant timber. Then, in addition, 

 although the vegetation is not so tropical — so 

 rich in its endless varieties of gaily coloured 

 blooms as the lower levels bordering on the 

 Zambezi, yet, in common with all the higher 

 altitudes of South Central and East Africa, you 

 find in the shelter of the massive granite boulders, 

 and in the ravines leading down to the ever 

 flowing streams, a wonderful variety of curious, 

 semi-alpine growths. The grass of the mountain 

 regions is short and green ; vast expanses of 

 homely bracken clothe the undulating plateau 

 country, and form the hiding-places of bush-buck 

 and klipspringer, of partridge and quail. In the 

 caves, and sheltered by the rough boulders of 

 the granite which lies thick on the slopes of the 

 mountain side, leopards and hyenas have their 

 hiding-places; and down below, where the 

 trees grow close to the running water, large 

 pythons may often be seen coiled beneath the 

 limbs of the massive tree trunks. In all other 

 respects, if you partly close your eyes so as some- 

 what to dim the sharp outlines of the cedars' 

 upper branches, their resemblance to Scotch pines 

 is so considerable that with the keen pure air of 



