Preparations for the, March. 245 
mg away into the distance, faded from blue-brown 
to the faintest azure, hardly to be distinguished 
from the empyrean above. The climate of these 
breezy uplands is superior even to that of Banza 
Nokki, which lies some 170 feet lower; and the 
nights are sensibly cooler. 
A few fathoms of altitude here make a sur¬ 
prising difference. The little valleys with their 
chalet-like huts reminded me of the Maroro and 
Kisanga basins, in the sister formation, the East 
African Ghats, but now we have a hill-climate 
without ague and fever. Our parallel is that 
of Yorukan Abokuta, where the people are anti- 
ceci, both being about 6° distant from the Line,— 
those north, these south. There the bush is fetid, 
and the clammy air gives a sense of deadly de¬ 
pression ; here the atmosphere is pure, the land is 
open, and there is enjoyment in the mere sense of 
life. The effete matter in the blood and the fatty 
degeneration of the muscles, the results of inac¬ 
tivity, imperfect respiration, and F. Po, were soon 
consumed by the pure oxygen of the highland air. 
I can attribute this superiority of the Congo region 
only to the labours of an old civilization now obso¬ 
lete ; none but a thick and energetic population 
could have cleared off the forest, which at one 
time must have covered their mountains. 
The Banza consists of about fifty cottages,, which 
are being new-thatched before the rains, and the 
