INDUSTRIOUS MONKEYS. 295 



At Senna and Tete he noticed a singular service in which domesticated 

 monkeys were engaged. In speaking of the opportunities the merchants at 

 these places allow to pass them of creating a thriving legitimate commerce, he 

 says — " Our friends at Tete, though heedless of the obvious advantages which 

 other nations would eagerly seize, have beaten the entire world in one branch 

 of industry. It is a sort of anomaly that the animal most nearly allied to 

 man in structure and function should be the most alien to him in respect to 

 labour, or trusty friendship ; but here the genius of the monkey is turned to 

 good account. He is made to work in the chase of certain ' wingless insects 

 better known than respected.' Having been invited to witness this branch of 

 Tete industry, we can testify that the monkey took it kindly, and it seemed 

 profitable to both parties." 



The following is taken from Dr. Livingstone's report on the Shire 

 Valley:— 



" I have the honour to convey the information that we have traced the 

 river Shire up to its point of departure from the hitherto undiscovered Lake 

 Nyinyesi or Nyassa, and found that there are only 33 miles of cataracts to be 

 passed above this, when the river becomes smooth again, and continues so right 

 into the lake in lat. 14° 25' south. We have opened a cotton and sugar 

 producing country of unknown extent, and while it really seems to afford 

 reasonable prospects of great commercial benefits to our own country, it presents 

 f acilities for commanding a large section of the slave-market on the east coast 

 and offers a fairer hope of its extirpation by lawful commerce than our previous 

 notion of the country led us to anticipate. The matter may appear to your 

 Lordship in somewhat the same light, if the following points in the physical 

 conformation of the country are borne in mind. 



" There is a channel of about from five to twelve feet, at all seasons of the 

 year, from the sea at Kongone harbour up to this cataract, a distance of about 

 200 miles, and very little labour would be required to construct a common 

 road past the cataracts, as the country there, though rapidly increasing in 

 general elevation, is comparatively flat near the river. 



"The adjacent region maybe easily remembered as arranged in three 

 well-defined terraces. The lowest of these is the valley of the Shire, which 

 is from 1200 to 1500 feet above the level of the sea, and exactly like the 

 valley of the Nile near Cairo, but beyond the cataracts somewhat broader. 

 The second terrace lies east of this, and is upwards of 2000 feet in altitude, 

 and some three or four miles broad. A third terrace, still further east, is over 

 3000 feet high at its western edge, or about the height of Table Mountain at 

 the Cape, which is often mentioned as the most remarkable mountain in that 

 part of Africa. The terrace is 10 or 12 miles broad, and is bounded on the 

 east by Lake Shirwa, or Tamandua, and a range of very lofty mountains. On 

 this last terrace rises Mount Zomba, which, on ascending, we found to be in 



