Abstract
AT the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on Monday last, a paper on “Usambara, East Africa, and the Adjoining Country,” was read by the Rev. J. P. Farler, who has spent the last three years there in connection with the Universities' Mission. Usambara is described as the Switzerland of Africa, and forms a link in the great East Coast range, which extends from Abyssinia to Natal; roughly speaking, it lies between S. lat. 4° 20′and 5° 25′, and E. long. 38° 20′ and 39° 10′. The mountains form four detached lines running due north and south, and rising in the higher peaks to about 6,000 feet above the sea-level. The range was evidently thrown up by volcanic action, and consists of granite mixed with spar, with sandstone in the lower spurs containing plumbago. Mr. Farler describes the scenery as varied and beautiful, now soft valleys and hill-sides with hanging woods, now again wild ravines with precipitous cliffs of bare granite. Usambara is drained by four rivers: the Zigi, with its affluent, the Kihuwi, the Mkulumuzi, the Ukumbini, and the Luari, the two first-named emptying into Tanga Bay; none of the four, however, are navigable. Trees are found in the region in great variety, but mostly of stunted growth; euphorbias, fan-palms, and mimosa thorns are seen everywhere, and occasionally baobabs, tamarind-trees, and clusters of the Borassus palm; there is also a kind of wild palm-tree. Various animals are found in the Mjika, or wilderness—antelopes varying from the size of a cow to that of a small goat, gazelles, lions, leopards, hyænas, and large apes. Mr. Farler mentions a noteworthy peculiarity in regard to the River Mkulumuzi, which in the rainy season becomes a torrent: “The stream has cut a deep bed for itself in the granite sides of the mountain, and exploring this bed in the dry season, I have found perfectly round, well-like basins in the rock, varying from a foot in diameter and depth to 10 feet in diameter, and from 8 to 12 feet in depth. There is always a stone at the bottom of these basins, and they must have been formed by the torrent giving, during the rainy season, a rotary motion to the stone.” The soil throughout Usambara is a red disintegrated clay upon a granite and sandstone foundation, and covered with a rich vegetable loam; the bottoms of the valleys contain beds of alluvial clay. Probably no more fertile soil could be found in the world, and it is capable of producing every tropical plant. The flora of the region is extensive; in the forests are found ebony, copal, teak, acacia, the india-rubber tree, the orchella weed, the betel-pepper climber, prickly smilax, with several varieties of the strychnos tree, and many other trees producing valuable wood. The inhabitants are many of them rather Semitic than Negro in their type, having high foreheads, while the prognathous jaw and spur heel are both wanting. They average 5 feet 7 inches in height, are strong, though not robust, and in form and figure resemble bronze statues. After describing the curious marriage customs of these people Mr. Farler concluded with some interesting remarks on the Masai country, which, sooner or later, must be thoroughly explored, so as to obtain a short route from the coast to the Victoria Nyanza.
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Geographical Notes . Nature 19, 76–78 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/019076a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/019076a0