PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 
5 1 
substance was cinnabar. Since that time no further specimens have reached us. 
It is beyond dispute that the country of Katanga is rich in copper and also 
possesses gold. The copper of Katanga, however, is widely spread in a currency 
of ingots over South Central Africa. Malachite also comes from that region. 
There is no reason why this copper should not also be found in the same 
formation to the east of the river Luapula and Lake Mweru. 
Specimens of lead and of graphite have been shown to me, but I was 
unable to identify the districts from which they were obtained, though I 
understood that some specimens of graphite came from the hills to the west 
of the Lower Shire. 
Iron ore is nearly everywhere abundant. Excellent haematite iron comes 
from the Upper Shire district. We have actually used some of this iron—have 
had it smelted and worked by native blacksmiths—for making the parts of a 
gun and such other relatively simple things which were within the scope of 
native blacksmiths or Sikh artizans. 
Garnets are found in the stream valleys of Mlanje. On the same mountain 
beautiful quartz crystals are met with and persons seeing them for the first 
time are often deluded into the belief that they have obtained diamonds. No 
trace of the blue diamond clay has ever yet been met with in Central Africa. 1 
There are no deposits of rock-salt, so far as I am aware, but salt is obtained 
from the brackish marsh called by the name of Mweru which lies between the 
great lake Mweru and Tanganyika ; also from the marsh country in the West 
Shire district, and from the brackish Lake Chilwa. 2 
But salt is also obtained both good and abundant—though rather dark in 
colour—from the ashes of grasses and other plants growing on the mountain 
plateaux and in the vicinity of rivers and lakes. On the whole, in one way or 
another British Central Africa may be considered to be well supplied with salt 
manufactured by the natives, which is a favourite article of commerce and is 
even a good deal used by Europeans, who' in their cooking, if not on their tables, 
at any rate in their kitchens, use it in preference to the imported article. 
1 Commander Cullen supplies the following note “ In the upper waters of the Lintipe river 
(Central Angoniland) the formation is the same as that of the Vaal River Valley : and as garnets and 
crystals are found in it, if it were properly worked it seems probable it might prove diamondiferous.” 
2 Mr. Sharpe describes as follows the way in which the natives extract salt from the Mweru 
swamp:—“The natives dwelling round the great Mweru salt swamp take the salt-impregnated earth 
round the lake shore and put it into funnels made of closely woven grass rope. They then pour in 
water and stir up the salt earth. The water takes up the salt and filtering through the grass funnel, 
carries the salt in solution into pots placed below. The water is then evaporated and cakes of pure 
salt are left.” 
APPENDIX 
THE COAL OF NYASALAND 
Report by the Director of the Scientific Department of the Imperial Institute on two samples of coal from 
Nyasaland, received through Mr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., from Mr. Alfred Sharpe, Acting Commissioner 
and Consul-General for British Central Africa:— 
Specimen A.— Coal from North Nyasaland— Fixed carbon, 57 '63 % ; ash, 15-57 % ; volatile matter, 
26-80 % ; sulphur, o‘io % ; coke, 73-20 % ; calorific value, 5520 units. This is a non-caking coal of very 
fine quality, which is likely to be useful for most purposes for which coal is employed. The percentage of 
ash is rather high, but the coal is remarkably free from sulphur. 
Specimen B.— Supposed Coal from the Songwe River —Fixed carbon, 47-46 % ; ash, 8-4 % ; volatile 
matter, 44-54 ; sulphur, 0-52 ; coke, 55-5 ; calorific value, 6050 units. This also is a non-caking coal of 
good quality, yielding very little ash, and containing but little sulphur. This coal would be serviceable 
either for heating or for metallurgical purposes. (Signed) Wyndham R. Dunstan. 
