104 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



so closely planted that they conceal the soil, cannot be 

 traversed without paths, and even where these exist the 

 traveller must fight his way through a dense screen, re- 

 ceiving from time to time a severe blow when the reeds 

 recoil, or a painful thrust from some broken and inclined 

 stump. Even the horny sole of the sandal-less African 

 cannot tread these places without being cut or staked, 

 and everywhere a ride through these grass-avenues whilst 

 still dripping with the cold exhalations of night, with the 

 sun beating fiercely upon the upper part of the body, is 

 a severe infliction to any man not in perfect health. The 

 beds of streams and nullahs are sometimes veiled by the 

 growth of the banks. These crops spring up with the 

 rains, and are burned down by hunters, or more fre- 

 quently by accident, after about a month of dry weather ; 

 in the interim fires are dangerous : the custom is to beat 

 down the blaze with leafy boughs. Such is the variety 

 of species that in some parts of the river- valleys each day 

 introduces the traveller to a grass before unseen. Where 

 the inundations lie long, the trees are rare, and those 

 that exist are slightly raised by mounds above the ground 

 to escape the destructive effects of protracted submer- 

 gence : in these places the decomposed vegetation ex- 

 hales a fetid odour. Where the waters soon subside 

 there are clumps of tall shrubbery and seams of forest 

 rising on extensive meadows of grassy land, which give 

 it the semblance of a suite of natural parks or pleasure- 

 grounds, and the effect is not diminished by the frequent 

 herds of gnu and antelope prancing and pacing over their 

 pastures. 



The climate is hot and oppressive, and the daily sea- 

 breeze, which extends to the head of the Mgeta valley, 

 is lost in the lower levels. About Zungomero rain is 

 constant, except for a single fortnight in the month of 



