GEOGRAPHY OF UGOGO. 



295 



assuming the march at 15 miles, would give a total of 

 120. The average of the heights observed is 3,650 feet, 

 with a gradual rise westwards to Jiwe la Mkoa, which 

 attains an altitude of 4,200 feet (?). 



The third region, situated to leeward of a range 

 whose height compels the south-east trades to part with 

 their load of vapours, and distant from the succession 

 of inland seas, which, stationed near the centre of the 

 African continent, act as reservoirs to restore the 

 balance of humidity, is an arid, sterile land, a counter- 

 part, in many places, of the Kalahari and the Karroo, 

 or South African desert-plains. The general aspect is 

 a glaring yellow Hat, darkened by long growths of 

 acrid, saline, and succulent plants, thorny bush, and 

 stunted trees, and the colouring is monotonous in the 

 extreme. It is sprinkled with isolated dwarf cones 

 bristling with rocks and boulders, from whose interstices 

 springs a thin forest of gums, thorns, and mimosas. 

 The power of igneous agency is displayed in protruding 

 masses of granitic formation, which rise from the dead 

 level with little foundationary elevation ; and the masses 

 of sandstone, superincumbent upon the primitive base 

 in other parts of the country, here disappear. On the 

 north rises the long tabular range of the Wahumba 

 Hills, separated by a line of lower ground from the pla- 

 teau. Southwards, a plain, imperceptibly shelving, trends 

 towards the Rwaha River. There are no rivers in Ugogo : 

 the periodical rains are carried off by large nullahs, 

 whose clay banks are split and cut during the season of 

 potent heat into polygonal figures like piles of columnar 

 basalt. On the sparkling nitrous salinas and the dull- 

 yellow or dun-coloured plains the mirage faintly resem- 

 bles the effects of refraction in desert Arabia. The roads 

 are mere foot-tracks worn through the fields and bushes. 



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