TAVETA FOREST. 
79 
to take any distance; moreover, as C- was due 
during the first week in January, it would have been 
rather hard on him to have found us all away, and 
our exact whereabouts unknown. It was therefore 
decided that B- should start off with Jackson at 
once, and shoot for ten days at Rhornbu, about sixteen 
miles north of Taveta, while H-- and myself were 
to remain in camp a few days longer, and then shoot 
the neighbourhood of Lanjora. 
The forest of Taveta, some seven miles square, is 
bounded on the north and east by more or less open 
plain and bush, on the west by the lower slopes of 
Kilima-njaro, and on the south by the Pari or Ughono 
Mountains and Lake Jipe. The interior has been 
cleared away to the extent of about ten square miles 
by the natives, known as the Wa-taveta; the soil of 
these clearings is most fertile, and produces large 
quantities of bananas, Indian-corn, beans, mtana (a 
native grain like millet), wild tomatoes, yams, sweet 
potatoes, sugar-cane, and coarse tobacco. It is pro¬ 
bably capable of growing anything, and of yielding 
large profits to the cultivators. Even the coarse to¬ 
bacco grown here and sent to the coast sells for one 
rupee per lb., at which price, after paying the cost of 
purchase and carriage to the coast, in addition to the 
duty of thirty-seven rupees per load of seventy-five lbs., 
it yields a profit of over ioo per cent. The Wa-taveta 
also raise herds of small cattle, sheep, and goats, which 
are tended by the women and children. 
The outer fringe of forest has not been interfered 
