12 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



cloud, or a screen of vapour, almost invariably tempers 

 the solar rays ; at night a halo, or a corona, generally 

 encircles the moon. The clouds are chiefly cumulus, 

 cumulo-stratus, and nimbus ; the sky is often overcast 

 with large white masses floating, apparently without 

 motion, upon the milky haze, and in the serenest 

 weather a few threads are seen pencilled upon the 

 expanse above. Sunrise is seldom thoroughly clear, 

 and, when so, the clouds, sublimed in other regions and 

 brought up by the rising winds, begin to gather in the 

 forenoon. They are melted, as it were, by the fervent 

 heat of the sun between noon and 3 p.m., at which time 

 also the breezes fall light. Thick mists collect about 

 sunset, and by night the skies are seldom free from 

 clouds. The want of heat to dilate the atmosphere at 

 this season, and the light-absorbing vegetation which 

 clothes the land, causes a peculiar dimness in the Galaxy 

 and " Magellan's Clouds." The twilight also is short, 

 and the zodiacal light is not observed. The suffocating 

 sensation of the tropics is unknown, and at noon in the 

 month of September — the midsummer of this region 

 — the thermometer, defended from the wind, in a single- 

 fold Arab tent, never exceeded 113° Fahr. Except 

 during the rains, the dews are not heavy, as in Zan- 

 zibar, in the alluvial valleys, and in Usagara and Ujiji : 

 the people do not fear exposure to them, though, as in 

 parts of France, they consider dew-wetted grass un- 

 wholesome for cattle. The Arabs stand bathing in 

 the occasional torrents of rain without the least appre- 

 hension. The temperature varies too little for the 

 European constitution, which requires a winter. The 

 people, however, scarcely care to clothe themselves. 

 The flies and mosquitoes — those pests of most African 

 countries — are here a minor annoyance. 



