282 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



stages, and several tirikeza ; now it is spanned in eight 

 marches. The wildest part is the first half from 

 Mdahuru to Jiwe la Mkoa, and even here, it is reported, 

 villages of Wakimbu are rising rapidly on the north and 

 south of the road. The traveller, though invariably 

 threatened with drought and the death of cattle, will 

 undergo little hardship beyond the fatigue of the first 

 three forced marches through the " Fiery Field in fact, 

 he will be agreeably surprised by its contrast with the 

 desert of Marenga Mk'hali. 



From east to west the diagonal breadth of Mgunda 

 Mk'hali is 140 miles. The general aspect is a dull uni- 

 form bush, emerald-coloured during the rains, and in the 

 heats a network of dry and broom-like twigs. Except 

 upon the banks of nullahs — " rivers" that are not rivers 

 — the trees, as in Ugogo, wanting nutriment, never afford 

 timber, and even the calabash appears stunted. The 

 trackless waste of scrub, called the " bush " in Southern 

 Africa, is found in places alternating with thin gum- 

 forest ; the change may be accounted for by the different 

 depths of water below the level of the ground. It is a 

 hardy vegetation of mimosas and gums mixed with ever- 

 green succulent plants, cactacese, aloes, and euphorbias : 

 the grass, sometimes tufty, at other times equally spread, 

 is hard and stiff; when green it feeds cattle, and when dry 

 it is burned in places by passing caravans to promote the 

 growth of another crop. 



The groundwork of Mgunda Mk'hali is a detritus of 

 yellowish quartz, in places white with powdered felspar, 

 and, where vegetation decays, brown-black with humus. 

 Water-worn pebbles are sprinkled over the earth, and 

 the vicinity of Fiumaras abounds in a coarse and modern 

 sandstone-conglomerate. Upon the rolling surface, and 



