PROSPECTS OF F. EQUATORIAL AFRICA. 549 
on tlieir transit, when communications between the 
coast and interior are facilitated. 
Nevertheless, it is to be admitted that the special 
wealth of this country lies in its agricultural future. 
There are districts that might become the granaries of 
the world, possessing, over a large area, a European 
climate. There are other regions peculiarly adapted 
by their elevation for the culture of quinine. Sugar¬ 
cane already grows half wild, and its cultivation might 
be increased to any extent. Coffee, tea, cacao, vanilla, 
would thrive in countries and districts remarkably 
suitable for their favourable growth. Above all, the 
question arises that if it can pay people to open up 
and trade with other parts of Africa, why should these 
magnificent fertile lands remain untouched, when they 
possess a climate superior in its salubrity to any other 
part of the continent ? 
In the neighbourhood, and near the base of Kilima¬ 
njaro, the greatest heat I registered was 81°; in the 
warmest part of the interior, 91°. The average night 
temperature in hilly districts is 60°; in the plains, 68°. 
Except on the loftiest mountains, and on the Victoria 
Nyanza lake, where it rains a few days in every month, 
the seasons in Eastern Equatorial Africa are regular 
in their divisions of wet and dry. From June to the 
end of October there is almost no rain, and from 
November to May there is an abundant rainfall during 
certain months. On Kilima-njaro the climate up to 
8000 feet is that of a Devonshire summer; above that 
elevation you may have it as cold as you like, the 
higher you go. 
I hope I have now said sufficient to show you that if 
Africa is worth opening up at all, the region which lies 
between the coast and Victoria Nyanza is eminently so. 
