146 
THE DESICCATION OF AFRICA 
observation, being on a foot-hill of the Muchinga range, and 
with well-defined ancient beaches in its vicinity. All the 
beaches throughout the valley are evidently not on the same 
level, and therefore cannot be of the same age. The intervening 
flats between old beaches and present river are of deep alluvium, 
and are still inundated for miles during a good rainy season, 
but the water soon drains off. There are very few depressions 
with permanent growth of reed, such as can be seen at the 
salt lakelets of Pachicherri, some thirty miles south of Nawalia. 
(Cherri is the local Senga name for salt, which is an article of 
native trade.) The old shores are to be seen right up at the 
northern end of the valley, comparative levels of which could 
only be determined by careful survey. Since my travels in 
the valley it has been closed to travellers by the local form of 
sleeping sickness due to the local form of Trypanosome, T. 
Ehodesiense, which is carried in dry country by Gbssina 
morsitans, not the moisture-loving Palpalis. The valley is 
bounded on the eastern side by the Nyika plateau, which rises 
to 7000 feet, and where Juniperus procera occurs as a rare 
tree. (Nyika means plateau in the local languages.) On 
the west the boundary is the Muchinga range (here again 
Muchinga means hills) which rise to over 5000 feet on to the 
Awemba plateau. 
Lake Nyasa, south end. — From the present Domira Bay it is 
very apparent that the lake extended far south of its present 
limits in very recent times. The sand beaches can be traced 
for many miles back in a gentle rise. Native tradition and 
the present shallow, sandy, and muddy bay both denote that the 
water is receding. My personal observations do not carry me 
inland at this point for more than a few miles. In 1903 land 
was forming on a large scale with the assistance of extensive 
lines of native fishing barriers of reed, which readily takes root 
and grows. The same remarks apply to the low sandy shores of 
Kota-Kota on the western side. In both instances the recession 
of water is more noticeable than on the more northern shores, 
which abruptly rise from great depths to 3000 feet or more. 
Some ten years ago Sir Alfred Sharpe published a paper 
in the Geographical Society Journal on the shrinkage of Nyasa 
and its southern extension Malombe. He also mentioned 
