The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

FLOrtA OF r,AZ.y.AXD. 225veers round to another quarter the conflict of the opposing movements results instorms and tremendous downpours. On the uplands the changes of temperatureare often very sudden. The heats, especially before the rainy season, are mostoppressive. A great change sets in n-ith the cold southern breezes, and in thespace of a few hours the glass will at times abruptly rise or fall as much as 50°or even 00^ F.Thanks to the copious rainfall, the region of the inland plateaux is very fertile.Here the forests present a great variety of species, whereas the low-lying plainsoffer but a scanty vegetation, far less varied than the animal kingdom. In thewooded districts of the south the trees, usually of small size and growing farapart, are all alike, whether living or dead, covered with a grej' moss, which givesthem a fantastic appearance.In .*ome of the Gazaland forests, as along the banksof the middle Zambese, a prevailing species is the moprnw, a large odoriferous tree,which affords travellers very little shade, its leaves being disiiosed in a verticalposition, like the wings of a butterfl}- at rest. The coast jiropcrly so-called is amere strijj of arid sands,- but farther inland the ground, covered with a reddisharenaceous soil, is much more productive, yielding abundant crops in the wellwateredbottom lands. But such tracts are rare, and the waters which during thepassing rains lodge in the depressions of the surface, soon evaporate after thereturn of fine weather. Throughout nearly the whole extent of the low-lyingplains savannahs everywhere alternate with scrub and thorny jjlants. In such aregion the inhabitants might be expected to settle chiefly along the courses ofthestreams, where the}' might procure the water indispensable for field operations ; j-etthe river banks are mostly deserted, and the tribes have taken refuge for the mostpart in remote and inaccessible retreats, in order to avoid the too frequent visits oftheir oppressive Zulu rulers. Hence, through long experience, the natives havebecome extremely skilful in discovering the smallest reservoir where the preciousfluid ma}- ooze out drop by drop. They are acquainted with all the forest jalantswhose leaves or berries contain water, and specially value the imluuga, a caoutchouccreeper, the fruit of which serves to quench their thirst. As in many other jjartsof Africa, such as the Fazogl district of Senaar, in the Xile basin, and on theQuissama plateau on the west coast, the cavities formed in the trunk of the baobabare also carefuUj" utilised as cisterns. These ca\'ities are enlarged and deepenedwith the axe and fire imtil the whole stem becomes, as it were, converted into asort of aerial well. But the winter rains do not always sulfice to replenish it ; thewater also gradually becomes foul, and at last evaporates altogether ; and whenthis happens, the inhabitants are fain to quit their forest retreats and remove tothe more open riverain tracts.Wherever the population is thinly scattered over wide spaces, the fauna, freefrom the attacks of its worst enemy, is both numerous and diversified. Theelephant stiU. abounds throughout Gazaland, the hippopotamus and crocodileswarm in all the streams, large herds of antelopes bound over the plains, while theuplands are frequented by large numbers of buflaloes.The hyrcnas, and especiallythe leopards, are much dreaded bv the herdsmen. Erskine traversed somevol.. XIII. o