TONGWE FORT. 



173 



eminence inaccessible from any but the Eastern 

 and Northern flanks. The deserted grounds 

 showed signs of former culture, and our negro 

 guide sighed as he told us that his kinsmen had 

 been driven by the Wazesrura from their ancient 

 seats to the far inner Tvilds. Around the Fort 

 were slender plantations of maize and manioc 

 s]3ringing amongst the ' black jacks,' which here, 

 as in the Brazil, are never removed. The sm-face 

 is a reddish, argillaceous, and vegetable soil, over- 

 lyinor errey and ruddy firranite and schists. These 

 rocks bear the ' gold and silver complexion' which 

 was fatal to Colin Clout, the chivabous ' Shepherd 

 of the Ocean,' and the glistening spangles of mica 

 still feed the fancy of the pauper Baloch mercen- 

 ary. Below Tongwe hill, a deep hole in the north- 

 ern face supplies the sweetest ' rock- water,' and 

 upon the plain a boulder of well-weathered 

 granite, striped with snowy quartz, contains two 

 crevices ever filled by the purest springs. The 

 climate appeared delicious, temperate in the full 

 blaze of an African and tropical summer, and 

 worthy of verse — 



' Fair is that laud as evening skies, 

 And cool though in the depths it lies 

 Of burning Africa.' 



The temperature would correspond with a similar 



