THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
fMxy I, 1894. 
never call property or lives their own from 
one month to another. In Bao the increase 
has been from 8,000 at beginning of 1892 to 
13,000 by end of 1893 ; in Lower Shire from 
3,000 in Augnst 1892 to 8,660 in December 
1893 which population paid £427 during 1893 
for hut taxes at 38 a hut on 2,890 huts 
Further we read : — 
In the Blantyre, Zomba, West Shire, Upper Shire, 
and South Nyasa districts the resident native po- 
fulation has largely increased during the year 1893. 
n the Mlaoje district the population has slightly 
diminished owing to the expulsion of Mkanda and 
his Yaos, but has increased locally round Fort 
Lister and on the western face of the mountain. 
Next we have an eulogistic notice of the late 
Mr. A. L. Bruce, an Edinburgh merchant, 
son-in-law of Livingstone, who subscribed 
largely to every scheme tor benefitting East 
and Central Africa. Then follows an affect- 
ing obituary notice for the young settlement : — 
Another death, eqaslly sudden end unexpeoted 
has saddened out soatterod community. Mr. Alfred 
E. Peile, the Collector of the Lower Sliire District, 
died at Ntumbi, near Port Herald, on J»nuary 19th 
from • gun accident. He was standing oq the guu- 
wale of his boat, waiting to get a shot at a bird. 
He held his loaded shot gun pointiDg upwards and 
the Btock resting on the gunwale. The boat g»vea 
sudden lurch Mr. Peile fell backward', the gun went 
off, and both charges entered his abdomen. The un- 
fortunate man did not at first believe himself very 
severely wounded, and sent a message to the African 
Lakes Company's agent to the effect that he was 
going down to Tshinde in a boat to see a surgeon. 
He died, however, ten minutes after the wound was 
imflicted. 
Mr, Peile was one of the most valued servants of 
the Administration. He was appointed assistant 
oolleotor in the Lower Shire District in August, 
1892, and in the spring of 1893 was promoted to be 
Collector. During his occupancy of this post the 
native population has increased by immigrition from 
three thousand Boula to nearly nine thousand. Port 
Herald has been laid out as a township, and Buropeaca 
and Banians have settled there. Mr. Peile was en- 
gaged up to the time of his death on an elaborate 
survey of the Lower Shire District. He will be 
missed not only by his many English friends, but by 
the natives with whom he was a great favourite. 
At the time of his death his age was twenty-eight. 
And iurther :— ^ :. ^ 
We also annoanoe with much regret the death 
of M. Jacques Bianohi, a French subject, and a 
well-known trader and transport agent in British 
Central Africa. Mr. Bianchi was sailing up the 
Zimbezi in a large boat, when a puff of wind capsized 
her, and Mr. Bianchi was unfortunately drowned, 
jbec'oming entangled, in sjme way, with the gear of 
the capeized boat. 
We have next interestmg extracts from 
•Reports by Mr. Richard Grawshay (Magistrate 
and Collector for the North Nyasa district) on 
the interesting Nyika country, which is the 
lofty plateau lying between the N.-W. coast 
of Lake Nyasa and the Great Luangwa River. 
We must make a few quotations: — 
Our route into Angouilaud lay through some of 
the finest country I have seen iu Africa; indeed, I 
cannot reooUect having seen anything like it either 
it the Shire Highlands or on the Nyasa-Tangnnvika 
; Phteau. Laaraag Lake Nyasa at Tshumbe (Mount 
oWlilier), where I secured some Bpeoimens of ooa', 
' we el'jnbed the Njika Plateau ia a westerly direc- 
tion, and travelled through Nyika, Henga, (depopu- 
lated some 16 years a^o by the Angoni), and Tum- 
buka in p»rt ; skirting the eastern limit of another 
depop'i lilted discriot Nkimaaga, and following up the 
Liujiua, ICasitu, and Luuyan((wa rivers for about two 
ani a half day*' journey. The Linyina Bnii Kasita 
are curious rivers, of fair width, but very shalloir 
with beds of pure soflsacd, as a rule, vr ry hi;h banks, 
The Nyika platean is msgoi6ceDt ooauiry, and is 
sparsely peopled by Anyika (otherwise called Apbka) 
who live on tiny ledges oat into the blopes of the 
mountains, and oooasionally in cavoa , and who col- 
tivste almost exclusively peas of fine tize, which 
grow vigourously through the entire dry season. 
The climate on these Nyika Mouutains is almost 
Earopean, and quite Natalian. On ELantorangoodo, 
below Tshidiyu's, the temperatare at sunrise regis- 
tered less tLan 36^ (the lowest my Capetown pur- 
chased thermometer would register), ard, at nooo in 
the shade, with the sun shining brightly, 71*^. The 
soil is generally bright red loam and very moist. 
There are any number of streams, Itrge and email, iu 
the beds of which are Tree Ferns, wila banaiaa, and 
monster trees with their limbe hoary with long grey 
lichen. The more I see af Nyika the more I am 
charmed by its high healthy country, and bracing 
air. It is in the mean bigber than I bad expected. 
For a day we rarely descended below eiz tbousasd 
five hundred feet, often going for miles well over seven 
thousand feet. The liigbest point registered on our 
route was seven thousand seven hundred and ninety 
feat, and at that altitude there was a perfect travel- 
ling over level ground covered by short, oriip grass, 
DO more than ankle-high. 
It is impossible to iguore paths altogether on the 
tops and sides of the mountains, so level is the lend 
and so thort the grass ; bat not so in the valleya 
intervening, where there are vjst and dense forests 
and tangled undergrowth of eztraordintrv luxuriance, 
and where often tbe ground resembles what ie termed 
iu Ireland " Red Bug." 
Water I found everywhere abundant and good and 
BO cold that a prolonged dranght gave one a pain 
between the eyes — after tbe manner of ice if eaten 
quickly. This last time I made a small bat aoique 
collection of butterflies, taken almost witboat excep- 
tion at altitudes well over seven thoasand feet. 
Flowers I again collected in a smiJI and aoscientifio 
way ; and I have, too, a branch of a kind of dwarf 
Lawsonia, [the " henna " of the East.— Ed,] which I 
found growing plentifully on tbe exposed peaks from 
six thousand five hundred feet upwards. This tree 
tlie Anyika kuow by the name of " Msata ; " it doe>« 
not grow, apparently, higher than some ten or 
twelve feet, and has a most pleasing smell. 
Game, both feathered and furred, is woefully con* 
spicaous by its absence, in Esbturu Nyika at any 
rate. Altogether I only saw three antelopes, all 
small, and one very similar to the Natal Oribi. Hares 
are plentiful, but, strange to say, there are no 
guinea-fowl, though there are namb:ire of Fraaoolia 
(three epeciej), and Qjuil. These latter are often 
caught by the natives in " running noose," traps with 
which the paths are plentifully beset. 
We have next Regulations dealing with the 
Engagement of Native Labour within the 12 
districts into which the " B. O. African Pro- 
tectorate is divided." These Regulations 
seem very wise and moderate, engagements 
as a rule being for a year. We then come 
on the 7th page to perhaps the most inter- 
esting part of this unique newspaper, 
namely " Notes on Natural History by Mr. 
AJex. Whyte and others.'' Mr, Whyte is the 
head of the " Science and Forestry Depart- 
ments" and among those who assist him is 
at least one other old Ceylon resident in 
Mr, T. H. Lloyd. We can only make short 
extracts from Mr. Whyte's paragraphs : — 
A remarkable monkey has recently arrived at Zemba 
from Tanganyika. There is some probability of this 
creature taming out to be a new species, or even genus. 
It has a remarkable saperficial resembianoe to the 
Black Ape of the Island of Celebes. It may, after 
al', be only a variety of the Cercopithecus pluto, 
thoagh aa a matter of fact, it eeems to combine 
in itielf eharaoteristic* of the baboone, the mamgabeyB, 
