Chap. III. SEASONS AT TETTE. GO 



September, and October. The rains may be expected during 

 the remaining months of the year. 



The rainy season of Tette differs a little from that of some 

 of the other intertropical regions ; the quantity of rain-fall 

 being considerably less. It begins in November and ends in 

 April. During our first season in that place, only a little over 

 nineteen inches of rain fell. In an average year, and when 

 the crops are good, the fall amounts to about thirty-five 

 inches. On many days it does not rain at all, and rarely is 

 it wet all day ; some days have merely a passing shower, 

 preceded and followed by hot sunshine ; occasionally an in- 

 terval of a week, or even a fortnight, passes without a drop 

 of rain, and then the crops suffer from the sun. These 

 partial droughts happen in December and January. The 

 heat appears to increase to a certain point in the different 

 latitudes so as to necessitate a change, by some law similar 

 to that which regulates the intense cold in other countries. 

 After several days of progressive heat here, on the hottest of 

 which the thermometer probably reaches 103° in the shade, 

 a break occurs in the weather, and a thunderstorm cools the 

 air for a time. At Kuruman, when the thermometer stood 

 above 84°, rain might be expected ; at Kolobeng, the point 

 at which we looked for a storm was 96°. The Zambesi is in 

 flood twice in the course of the year; the first flood, a 

 partial one, attains its greatest height about the end of 

 December or beginning of January; the second, and 

 greatest, occurs after the river inundates the interior, in a 

 manner similar to the overflow of the Nile, this rise not 

 taking place at Tette until March. The Portuguese say 

 that the greatest height which the March floods attain is 

 thirty feet at Tette, and this happens only about every 

 fourth year; their observations, however, have never been 



