42 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
October, November the day temperature may rise to 98° and fall at night to 65°. 
During the height of the rainy season the clay temperature ranges from 75° to 
95 0 and the night from 65° to 80°. 
In the rainy season the wind usually blows from a northerly direction and is 
what one may call a benign wind, being warm and wet. During the dry season 
the cursed south-easter prevails. This hated wind comes up from the South Pole 
and is cold and dry. It is the equivalent of our east wind in England and 
produces much the same effects on health when it blows strongly. In the 
excessively dry months of September, October, and November this wind blow¬ 
ing across large areas of burnt plain—where the bush fires have destroyed the 
vegetation and the sun has baked the soil—has a bad effect on cultivated crops. 
It seres the leaves and causes many delicate plants to wither. Happily it soon 
loses its effect by passing over the mountains which are always attended by 
watery vapour. When the south wind prevails there is a curious mistiness in 
the atmosphere. This is partly caused by the diffused smoke of the bush fires, 
but it is also due to some other causes not yet explained. At this time of the 
year mists often prevail to a striking extent in tbe early morning. These are 
similar to the “smokes” which are so marked a feature in the dry season on the 
FIRST VIEW OF MLANJE MOUNTAIN FROM LOWER SHIRE 
West Coast of Africa. One understands how these dense fogs occur on any 
large river or lake, for instance. The temperature of the water is much higher 
than that of the air in the early morning, and so one may see clouds and vapour 
rising from the water surface, just as though it were boiling, and these gradually 
form low dense fogs which, minus the addition of smoke, are quite as thick as 
those we are accustomed to in the Thames Valley, which no doubt arise from 
the same cause. 
One of the accompanying maps will give some idea of the distribution of 
the rainfall, and the names, length, and navigability of the more important 
streams. It might be mentioned that almost all the streams given in this map 
are perennial as far as our knowledge of them goes. Another map gives the 
relative height of the land and the names and altitudes of the principal 
mountain ranges. Only a few of these latter require special mention. So far 
as we yet know the highest mountain in British Central Africa is Mlanje, at its 
extreme south-eastern corner. Mlanje consists of a huge plateau from which 
again rise mountain peaks representing ancient volcanoes. It reaches at its 
highest point an altitude of 9683 feet. The summit was scaled by Mr Sharpe 
and Captain Manning in 1895. Much of the up-reared mass, which is about 
200 square miles in area, exceeds an altitude of 6oco feet and is eminently 
habitable. The Shire Highlands—or the district between the Ruo, the Shire 
