Chap. XXXVI. ELEVATION AND CLIMATE. 
505 
try ; but of the uppermost course of this river I 
was not able to obtain the least information, while 
have been able to lay down its lower course with 
great approximative certainty.* Yet, although the 
elevation of the country is in general the same, the 
nature of the different districts varies greatly : thus 
in Chamba, apparently on account of the neighbour- 
hood of Mount Alantika, which attracts the clouds, 
the rainy season is said to set in as early as January, 
so that by the end of April or beginning of May the 
first crop is ripe, while in Yola, and in the country 
in general, the rains rarely begin before March. 
The grain most commonly grown in the country is 
Holms sorghum ; but in this respect also there is a 
great difference between the districts. Thus, the 
country of the Mbum round Ngaundere scarcely 
produces anything but rogo, or yams, which form 
the daily, and almost sole food of the inhabitants. 
Meat is so dear there that a goat will often fetch the 
price of a female slave. Ground-nuts (Arachis hypo- 
gcea) are plentiful both in the eastern and the western 
districts. A tolerable quantity of cotton, called 
" pottolo " in A'damawa, is cultivated ; but indigo or 
" chachari " is very rare, and is hardly cultivated any- 
where but in Sarawu and Maruwa ; and this is verv 
natural, as the Fulbe do not value coloured shirts. 
* It would be rather more appropriate to give the name of 
Lower Benuwe to that part of the river below, and that of Upper 
Benuwe to the part above the confluence, than to call Upper 
Benuwe the part of the river visited by Dr. Baikie. 
