VIOLENT STORMS. 



9 



northern and western provinces the wet monsoon begins 

 earlier and lasts longer. At Msene it precedes Unyan- 

 yembe about a month; in Ujiji, Karagwah, and Uganda, 

 nearly two months. Thus the latter countries have a 

 rainy season which lasts from the middle of September 

 till the middle of May. 



The moisture-bearing wind in this part of Africa is 

 the fixed south-east trade, deflected, as in the great 

 valley of the Mississippi and in the island of Ceylon, 

 into a periodical south-west monsoon. As will appear 

 in these pages, the downfalls begin earlier in Central 

 Africa than upon the eastern coast, and from the latter 

 point they travel by slow degrees, with the northing 

 sun, to the north-east, till they find a grave upon the 

 rocky slopes of the Himalayas. 



The rainy monsoon is here ushered in, accompanied, 

 and terminated by storms of thunder and lightning, 

 and occasional hail-falls. The blinding flashes of 

 white, yellow, or rose colour play over the firma- 

 ment uninterruptedly for hours, during which no 

 darkness is visible. In the lighter storms thirty and 

 thirty-five flashes may be counted in a minute : so vivid 

 is the glare that it discloses the finest shades of colour, 

 and appears followed by a thick and palpable gloom, 

 such as would hang before a blind man's eyes, whilst a 

 deafening roar simultaneously following the flash, seems 

 to travel, as it were, to and fro overhead. Several 

 claps sometimes sound almost at the same moment, and 

 as if coming from different directions. The same storm 

 will, after the most violent of its discharges, pass over, 

 and be immediately followed by a second, showing the 

 superabundance of electricity in the atmosphere, When 

 hail is about to fall, a rushing noise is heard in the air, 

 with sudden coolness and a strange darkness from the 



