50 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



tinuously, with breaks varying from a few hours to 

 several days ; unlike those of Zanzibar, they are gene- 

 rally accompanied by violent discharges of electricity. 

 Lightning from the north, especially at night, is con- 

 sidered a sign of approaching foul weather. It would 

 be vain to seek in these regions of Central Africa the 

 kaskazi and kosi, or regular north-east and south-west 

 monsoons, those local modifications of the trade- winds 

 which may be traced in regular progress from the centre 

 of Equatorial Africa to the Himalayas. The atmo- 

 spheric currents deflected from the Atlantic Ocean by 

 the coast-radiation and the arid and barren regions of 

 Southern Africa are changed in hydrometric condition, 

 and are compelled by the chilly and tree-clad heights of 

 the Tanganyika Lake, and the low, cold, and river-bearing 

 plains lying to the westward, to part with the moisture 

 which they have collected in the broad belt of extreme 

 humidity lying between the Ngami Lake and the equa- 

 tor. When the land has become super-saturated, the 

 cold, wet, wind, driving cold masses, surcharged with 

 electricity, sets continually eastward, to restore the 

 equilibrium in lands still reeking with the torrid blaze, 

 and where the atmosphere has been rarified by from four 

 to six months of burning suns. At Msene, in Western 

 Unyamwezi, the rains break about October ; thence the 

 wet monsoon, resuming its eastward course, crosses the 

 Land of the Moon, and, travelling by slow stages, arrives 

 at the coast in early April. Following the northing 

 sun, and deflected to the north-east by the rarified 

 atmosphere from the hot, dry surface of the Eastern 

 Horn of Africa, the rains reach Western India in June, 

 and exhaust themselves in frequent and copious down- 

 falls upon the southern versant of the Himalayas. The 

 gradual refrigeration of the ground, with the southing of 



