544 
TIIE KILIMANJARO EXPEDITION. 
The insects are not likely to offer anything com¬ 
mercially interesting, nor indeed any of the lower 
invertebrate forms. I might, however, in their case 
lay stress on the same favourable fact as with regard 
to the snakes, viz. the scarcity or absence of noxious 
forms. Thus there is no tsetse fly , such as, but a 
short distance southward, interferes with the intro¬ 
duction of horses and cattle. Mosquitoes only exist 
in certain districts, near rivers or lakes, and are 
entirely absent from most parts of the country. Fleas 
and bed-bugs are unknown, nor has the American 
jigger, which is such a pest on the Congo, been intro¬ 
duced. White ants are not very numerous, and do 
not exist at all above a moderate elevation. The tsenia 
intestinal worm, so often heard of in other parts of 
Africa, is here never to my knowledge met with. 
I might mention that a small edible fresh-water crab 
is found in the rivers. 
As to the vegetable productions, they are, apart 
from those cultivated and introduced by man, certainly 
valuable. There is particularly fine timber growing 
in many parts, particularly on Kilima-njaro and in the 
mountainous districts to the northward, and again on 
the west of the Victoria Nyanza. The forests in 
Usambara and in Pare, both districts near the coast, 
are full of magnificent lofty trees, which are much 
prized at Zanzibar for shipbuilding. On the coast 
and in Zanzibar, timber sells for 25 to 50 dollars per 
50 cubic feet, according to quality. 
Gums are produced in the interior, both copal and 
a kind called false copal. India-rubber can be pro¬ 
cured from at least one creeper, the Landoljoliiaflorida , 
and I think also another, a species of fig. Coffee grows 
wild, especially on the northwards of the district, 
