200 
Life at Banza Nokki . 
witsch (Welwitschia mirabilis), but there is still a 
copious treasure left for those who visit the Congo 
River in the right season. 
I was delighted with the country, a counterpart 
of the Usumbara Hills in Eastern Africa, disposed 
upon nearly the same parallel. The Cacimbo 
season corresponded with the Harmattan north of 
the Line ; still, grey mornings, and covered, rain¬ 
less noons, so distasteful to the Expedition, which 
complained that, from four to five days together, it 
could not obtain an altitude. The curious contrast 
in a region of evergreens was not wanting, the 
varied tintage of winter on one tree, and upon 
another the brightest hues of budding spring. 
The fair land of grass and flowers “rough but 
beautiful,” of shrubbery-path, and dense mottes or 
copse islets, with clear fountains bubbling from the 
rocks, adorned by noble glimpses of the lake-like 
river, and of a blue horizon, which suggested the 
ocean—ever one of the most attractive points in an 
African landscape,—was easily invested by the eye 
of fancy with gold and emerald and steely azure 
from above, whilst the blue masses of bare mountain, 
thrown against a cloudless sky, towered over the 
black-green sea of vegetation at their base, like 
icebergs rising from the bosom of the Atlantic. 
As in the Brazilian Rio de Sao Francisco, the 
few miles between the mouth and the hill-region 
cause a radical change of climate. Here the suns 
