THE WEST COAST OF EQUATORIAL AFRICA. 103 
above fourteen thousand feet over the level of the sea); but 
further south it is in many places skirted with cliffs. 
The seasons on the coast* are threefold, and may be described 
in general terms as follows : — The three seasons are called rainy, 
dry, and smoky. It is difficult to state with exactitude when 
these seasons begin and when they terminate, for our authori- 
ties (some of whom have resided many years on the coast) do 
not all agree on the subject ; but approximately the heavy rains, 
which are ushered in by tornadoes, last from about February to 
May or June ; then cold, hazy weather sets in, and small driz- 
zling rains prevail. This is the smoky season, which lasts until 
about September ; and from that time until the rains re-com- 
mence early in the year, it is hot and dry, the thermometer 
averaging 83° in the shade. Strangely enough, however, the 
hot season is the most healthy ; for it is during the smoky and 
rainy seasons that the fevers are most virulent. 
The diseases to which Europeans (and, in a less degree, the 
natives) are subject, are, on their arrival, bilious anct gastric 
fevers ; then dysentery, agues, and yellow fever. The universal 
antidotes in cases of fever are large doses of quinine and emetics. 
Often, unfortunately, the patient has recourse to spirituous 
liquors, and it is hardly necessary to say that their deadly effects 
are sooner felt in this unhealthy region than in our own tem- 
perate climate. 
If a casual reader tried to gather from the published works of 
travellers, or even from the conversation of friends who have 
resided on the coast, what is the general nature of the climate, 
he would find it very difficult to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion, 
for every one speaks “ as he found it some describing it under 
the influence of sickness, after a weary journey, others having 
never left some one healthy .spot on the coast ; so that it is quite 
impossible to reconcile their ideas on the subject. 
Both on the coast and in the interior, it is, as a rule, decidedly 
unhealthy and trying to Europeans, and will remain so until the 
land is cultivated and; reclaimed. Nor is it to be wondered at, 
so long as bogs and mangrove swamps exist, that the miasma 
arising therefrom should breed fevers and agues. It must also 
be mentioned that, although there is generally a change of 
seasons, yet it not unfrequently happens that during eighteen 
months, there is not a single downfall of rain.f Under such 
circumstances, the streams dry up, vegetation decays, and, to 
use the expression of a resident, “ the natives die like rats.” 
* This refers to the coast south of Cape Lopez. In the bights of Biafra 
and Benin the rains last from October to January, and the remainder of the 
year is hot and dry. 
t From Cape Lopez southward there is sometimes not a single downfall of 
rain for twenty-four to twenty-six months ! 
