Unika. 
83 
week after the first fall of the Muaka all starts into 
life, and the landscape smiles again. 
The climate is not unpleasant, except when in 
extremes. The excessive humidity of the atmosphere 
at times, during the muaka rains, and the high tem- 
perature attained during some portions of the hot 
season, are both uncomfortable and trying to the 
European. The temperature ranges between a mini- 
mum of 69° and a maximum of 90° Fahr. in the shade. 
Usually, however, the thermometer stands at 85° in 
the shade during the hotter season, and at 75° during 
the cooler months of the Muaka. It is certainly not 
a healthy climate for Europeans. The jungles, rank 
weeds and grasses, the mangrove swamps, and decaying 
vegetation everywhere, generate malaria to a great 
extent, so that to the European fever is unavoidable. 
To the long resident on the coast the uniformity of 
the temperature, though not excessively high, is a 
severe test. This, together with the constant recur- 
rence of fever, gradually, but surely, undermines his 
constitution ; he loses strength and energy, and 
by degrees falls into a state of extreme lassitude and 
emaciation. Nothing can save him but a change of 
climate. We write these remarks from experience as 
well as from observation. If the country could be 
brought under cultivation, the climate would no doubt 
be greatly improved, because the generation of malaria 
would then be very much less ; but the sameness of 
temperature must ever militate most severely against 
the health of the European. 
The flora of Unika is an extensive one. Its forests 
contain some of the finest timber in the world. The 
mfule is a huge tree, and might be cut up into capital 
