CLIMATE , GEOLOGY, BOTANY, §c. 
323 
in a much modified degree—the sirocco or khamsin of 
Northern Africa. In the forests of Taveita the (to 
me, not disagreeable) unvarying, moist, greenhouse 
warmth of the tropical lowlands awaits you. Here, 
perhaps, the utmost range of the thermometer during 
the twenty-four hours will be ten or twelve degrees. 
In the outer plains it may vary from 91° in the early 
afternoon to 58° before dawn. 
During the four months (June—September) of my 
stay in Mosi, at an altitude of 5000 feet, the average 
readings in the shade of the thermometer were as 
follows : At noon, 71°; at 8 p.in., 60°; at 6 a.m., 58°. 
The lowest reading at noon was 68° (August 12th) ; 
the highest 80° (July 3rd and June 12th). The lowest 
reading at night (from 10 to 12 p.m.) was 54°; the 
highest 62. In my more elevated collecting stations, 
at 10,000 and 11,000 feet, the lowest night tempera¬ 
ture (recorded) was 29°; the highest at 3 p.m., 65°. 
At Taveita the highest registered was 90° at 3 p.m.; 
the lowest at 4 a.m., 60°. The highest temperature 
ever recorded in the plains between Kilima-njaro and 
the coast was 91°. 
From these observations the reader will perceive 
that, for at least six months of the year, the tempera¬ 
ture of this portion of Eastern Africa is quite bearable, 
if not in some places delightful. Nowhere is there 
extreme heat, and the nights are always so far cool, 
that bedclothes are supportable and sleep is refresh¬ 
ing. What it is for the other half of the year I 
cannot personally say, as I have had no experience, 
but travellers and missionaries who know the adjacent 
countries assure me that the temperature is but little 
higher during the other months when the wet season 
prevails; it is rather that the climate becomes every - 
y 2 
