ASPECT OF ZANZIBAR. 



145 



lect e lead and look-out ' are ever liable to be 

 carried northwards to Pemba by the counter- 

 current before mentioned, which may, however, 

 now be a wind-current. At this season ship -mas- 

 ters missing the mark have sometimes made 3° to 

 4° of easting, and have preferred beating down to 

 Mafiyah and running up again, rather than face 

 the ridicule of appearing via the northern pass- 

 age. Those leaving the Island in the S.W. 

 monsoon stand north up channel, well out in 

 E. Ion. 9° 42' to 43', beat south of Cape Del- 

 gado, pass between the Comoro group and the 

 mainland, and thus catch the Mozambique gulf- 

 stream. The brises solaires blow strongest off 

 Madagascar in June and July. They fall light 

 in August and September. 



The aspect of Zanzibar from the sea is that 

 of coralline islands generally — a graceful, wavy 

 outline of softly rounded ground, and a surface 

 of ochre-coloured soil, thickly clothed with foli- 

 age alternating between the liveliest leek- green 

 and the sombrest laurel, the only variety that 

 vegetation knows in this land of eternal verdure. 

 Everywhere the scenery is similar ; each mile of 

 it is a copy of its neighbour ; and the want of 

 variety, of irregularity, of excitement, so to 

 speak, soon makes itself felt. Zanzibar ignores 



VOL. I. 10 



