86 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
and the annuals were nearly dried up. The pictorial 
effects were those of 
Autumn laying liere ancl there 
A fiery finger on the leaves.” 
Yet, with Factotum Selim’s assistance, I managed to 
collect some 490 specimens within the fortnight. We 
had not the good fortune of the late Dr. Welwitsch 
(Welwitscliia mirabilis), but there is still a copious 
treasure left for those who visit the Congo River in the 
right season. 
I was delighted with the country, a counterpart of 
the Usumbara Hills in Eastern Africa, disposed upon 
nearly the same parallel. The Cacimbo season corre- 
sponded with the Harmattan north of the Line ; still, 
grey mornings, and covered, rainless noons, so distasteful 
to the Expedition, which complained that, from four to 
five days together, it could not obtain an altitude. The 
curious contrast in a region of evergreens was not 
wanting, the varied tintage of winter on one tree, and 
upon another the brightest hues of budding spring. 
The fair land of grass and flowers “ rough but beautiful,” 
of shrubbery -path, and dense mottes or copse islets, with 
clear fountains bubbling from the rocks, adorned by 
noble glimpses of the lake-like river, and of a blue 
horizon, which suggested the ocean— ever one of the 
most attractive points in an African landscape — was 
easily invested by the eye of fancy with gold and 
emerald and steely azure from above, whilst the blue 
masses of bare mountain, thrown against a cloudless 
sky, towered over the black-green sea of vegetation at 
their base, like icebergs rising from the bosom of the 
Atlantic. 
As in the Brazilian Rio de Sao Francisco, the few 
miles between the mouth and the hill-region cause a 
radical change of climate. Here the suns are never too 
hot, nor are the moons too cold ; the nights fall soft and 
misty, the mornings bring the blessing of freshness ; 
and I was never weary of enjoying the effects of dying 
and reviving day. The most delicate sharpness and 
