10 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



canopy of brownish purple clouds. The winds are 

 exceedingly variable : perhaps they are most often from 

 the east and north-east during summer, from the north- 

 west and south-west in the rains ; but they are answered 

 from all quarters of the heavens, and the most violent 

 storms sail up against the lower atmospheric currents. 

 The Portuguese of the Mozambique attribute these ter- 

 rible discharges of electricity to the quantity of mineral 

 substances scattered about the country ; but a steaming 

 land like Eastern Africa wants, during the rains, no 

 stronger battery. In the rainy season the sensation is 

 that experienced during the equinoctial gales in the 

 Mediterranean, where the scirocco diffuses everywhere 

 discomfort and disease. The fall is not, as in Western 

 India, a steady downpour, lasting sometimes two or 

 three days without a break. In Central Africa, rain 

 seldom endures beyond twelve hours, and it often as- 

 sumes for weeks an appearance of regularity, re-occurring 

 at a certain time. Night is its normal season ; the morn- 

 ings are often wet, and the torrid midday is generally 

 dry. As in Southern Africa, a considerable decrease 

 of temperature is the consequence of long-continued 

 rain. Westward of Unyanyembe, hail-storms, during 

 the rainy monsoon, are frequent and violent; according 

 to the Arabs, the stones sometimes rival pigeons' eggs in 

 size. Throughout this monsoon the sun burns with sickly 

 depressing rays, which make earth reek like a garment 

 hung out to dry. Yet this is not considered the un- 

 healthy period : the inundation is too deep, and eva- 

 poration is yet unable to extract sufficient poison from 

 decay. 



As in India and the southern regions of Africa, the 

 deadly season follows the wet monsoon from the middle 

 of May to the end of June. The kosi or south-west 



