334 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. t, 1894.. 
country is well wooded with email trees, tat the 
prevailing sroallne6S of the trees is not owing to 'he 
quality of tbe soil, but rather to the fact that bush 
fires, caused by the burning of the grass by t) e natives 
in August generally destroy the growth it a;, early 
stage: and in the n«ighbourhood of streams hg trees 
■re met with. The plains went of Lake Shirwa 
abound in game o* all forte. From tbe;e and 'be 
other plains tbe hill land rises iu most p'aces with 
considerable abruptness. Lake Nja^a is a about 
1,400 ft. above the sea, and from its level to 
Katunga, on the Sbire, about 150 mile" below, there 
is a descent of 1,100 ft,, chiefly my means of tbe 
series of rapids kuown as the Murchison Falls, whioh 
are in the upper part of the lotg bend below 
Matope. 
At present the most important portion of British 
Central Africa is the Shire Highlands, which mainly 
consist of two mountainous tracts, one, G.OOOft. high, 
around Zomba, arid the other, 9,000 ft. high, be'-wt eo 
Fort Lister »nd Fort Anderson. The latter tract 
is the Mlanji Mountains. From Zomba to near 
Blantyre there is also a subsidiary range which, 
at Blantyre, bifurcates, one spur running to the 
Murchison Fall", and the other running nearly south 
and forming the Cholo Range. On the lower por- 
tions of the hills near Blantyre and Zomba there 
are now numerous flourishing coffee plantatioi s- 
There is also good ooffee Jand on tbe Obolo 
Mountains, and some plantations recently established 
on the north-west slopes of Mlanji are reported 
to be doing well. Throughout the Shirt' High- 
lands! owing to the prevalence of road robberies, it 
has been found neoessary to plant small posts garri- 
soned by Sikhs and Makua. These serve their purpose ; 
buit, on tbe other band, they lock up part of the 
m litary foroe, for which there is generally pleuty 
of other employment. 
Blantyre is, in some respects, the most important 
centre. It has a fine church, many brick buildings, 
including the vioc-consulate, the postcffioe, the ad- 
ministrative office of the collector of the district, and 
several merchants' houfes, and is the headquarters of 
the African Lakes Company ; tut Zomba is tbe ad- 
ministrative oapital, and contains tbe Residency of 
tbe Commissioner, the chief post office, any the 
houses of about twenty whites. Tbe other stations 
in the Shire Highlands are Domasi, where there 
ia a branch of the Blantyre Mission, Fort 
Lister, Fort Anderton, where the collector of 
the Mlanji district reside?, three posts held by 
the Sikhs : Chiromo, MpimLi, and Chlkwaroa, which 
are administrative centres ; Matope, whioh is a station 
of the Atrioan Lakes Corporation, and is also a teat 
of the Universities' Mission ; Liwondi, where there 
are two loits garrisoned by Sikhs ai d Makua, and 
where the collector of tbe Upper Shire dis'riot tesides ; 
Fort Johnston, where there are a oollector and an 
assistant collector, an agent of the African Lake-* 
Company, and a naval dockyard for her Majesty's 
vessels on the Lake ; and several detached plantations, 
especially in an arouuel the Mlanji Mountains where 
there is a mission, and on Mount Cholo. 
Not many miles behind Fort Johnston there 
rises a wall of steep mountains, at the summit 
of which is the stronghold of the irreconcilable 
chief, Zara.fi, who raids thence. He has, since 
MakaDjira was driven into Portuguese territory, 
been muoh strengthened by accessions of num- 
bers of the former followers of that potentate, 
and, as he has twice baaten the British and has 
taken their big gun, he is regarded in tbe dis- 
trict as the great leader of the anti-British 
party. M'Kate, whose stronghold is ne»r at 
band is Zarafi's brother. The influence of these twe 
persons is so extensile that the road on the east 
side of the Shire has bad to be abandoned between 
Liwondi and Fort Johnston. Travellers going upwards 
on the east side have to cross river at Liwondi and 
oontinue tbeir journey on the west bank. A fairly 
good native roid connect" Zirafi's headquarters with 
those ol Kawinga which are situated among some 
more nearly inaccessible peaks. Both Zarafi's and 
K%wiog»'8 people have gardens on the streams run< 
ring into Lakes Sbirwa and M'piri and into the uprer 
portion of tbe Luj.-nda river, Liwngstouia, at tbe 
south end of Lake Ny«si, is thickly populated and 
qui'e pfaoetol. On the east shore of the lake, the 
lakeland or low-'jing district has a bread 'h of from 
balf a mile to fire miles. Behind this tbe bills rise 
quickly to 4 000 i . To the south of tbe lake tbe 
lakeland is broader. At tbe nonh end of the lake 
'here is scsroely any lakeland at all, tbe Livingstone 
Mountains rising al i os out of the water to a maxi- 
mum height of about 10,000 ft. 
Northward from Fori Johnston there is • road along 
tbe coast to Fort Magu're, but at present it is unsafe, 
as Mak.ijira'e people from Cbikalu, in the mountain*, 
are iu tbe habit of crossing it to obtain fish from 
Nyasa, and to get f cod near tbe shore. Further op 
the coast the towns of Kalawiri, Lose«ra, Cbiogoroaiji, 
and M'tengula are all under Yao rale, all foil of Arabs 
and coalmen, and all busily engages! ip tbe slave 
traffic. They are in Portuguese territory, but not in 
any rense under P. rtugueae OoDt'ol, for the nearest 
Portuguese offieial i» ufaily four hundred miles away 
from them. Still more <o tbe northward are some 
villagers of L»ke people, among whom the Likoaa asis- 
sion has started work. Tbe first chief to b« punished for 
slave-raiding was one living in tbe Mlaogi Mountains, 
south of Lake Shima, cn the spot now occupied by 
Mr. Brown's coffee plantation. Captain ll*gu|re 
with 70 Sikhs and 400 armed native irregular*, crashed 
him completely. 
Tbe lakeland on the western side of Njasa is very 
much broader than elsewhere, and teems with all kinds 
of game, from the elephant down to the mpala, a 
small specie* of antelope. Tbere are lions, leopard*, 
byesuas, zebras, buffaloes, wild bogs, wart hop, elands, 
koodoos, hartebeest', water-bucks, reed-backs, and 
busb-bueka, and, behind, on tbe mount* ins, there are 
sable antelopes. It is a sportsman's paradise. 
PLANTING AND PRODUCE. 
The Sams Old Game.— Tbe Chinese tea growers, 
or at least many of them, have play id into the 
hands of Indan and Ceylon planters by ignor- 
ing the requirements of foreign market?, and 
refusing to make any improvements in their 
methods. They follow the old plan, and when trade 
is bad they cast about how to mend matters by wavs 
that are vsin. Our consul at Amoy writes of the 
tea from that port : " There wa-j no improve- 
ment in quality, bat, on the contrary, some un- 
scrupu'ous dealers took to mixing inferior leaf with 
goo i Fornv si tea, a trick which seriously threatens 
the existence of that article on tbe Am- r. can market, 
where it already shows a considerable falling off." 
Macao and " Lis " Tea.— Iu his report on the trade 
of Macao, Mr. Joly. tho acting vioe-con-ui. throw* some 
light on the trade in "lie" tea. which, by the way, it 
has been said had almost ceased to exist. The trade of 
Mr cia is genuine tea is in such a sad plight that 
it has been found extremely useful to develop the 
trade in a composition known by the appropriate 
name of " lie." These teas sre mauufactured from 
exhausted tea-leaves, which are dried, retired and 
mixed with a certain proportion of genuine tea and 
of seeds and dust. Most of this preparation proceeds 
to Hamburg, where no ''Adulteration Aot " is in force ; 
but a good deal of mystery enshrouds its ultimate 
fate. According to Mr. Joly, some of this "lie" 
tea is often packed in chests labelled " best congou," 
and shipped to India for the lower classes. It is 
better to assume that Its precise destination is not 
traced, for no doubt it goes wherever there ia a market 
for it. In Amerioa and Australia they strongly 
object to the stuff, and tbe more they know of India 
and Ceylon teas the less likely are they to put np with 
bogus of or inferior tea of any kind. — B. and C. Mail. 
Lady Bugs fob India.— Henry Hubbard, of Florida, 
made a ehipment of lady bags to India a few 
days -g j. A small colored boy has been employed 
to capture a thousand or more of these bogs which 
are wanted in India to destroy the scale insect.-* 
Florida Agriculturist, Sept. 5, 
