Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/436

 852 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. By taking advantage of the general lie of the land, the Tana itself might in the Nime wav bo connected with the lower course of two other rivers, the Kifili and the Sabaki, which reach the coast more to the south. The natives are unanimous in asaertin*' that during the periodical inundations, its current traverses the inter- vening lake and overflows into the southern alluvial tracts, flooding the depressions to a sufficient depth to allow light craft to pass from one fluvial basin to the other, keeping to the inner or land side of the dunes which here fringe the coast. This transverst' navigable waterway is even continued southwards beyond the Sabaki by lacustrine cavities which are regularly flooded during the rainy season. According to Thomson, there would appear to be distinct evidence of upheaval all along this coast. The coral terrace formations have been raised in some places from 50 to over GO feet, and farther inland from 120 to about 200 feet above the present stni-level. But indications of an opposite phenomenon are said to have been observed in the neighbouring Tangata inlet. Whether through subsidence of the ground, or the erosive action of the marine waters, several villages with their palm-groves have here entirely disappeared. Flora. Apart from the mountainous district, the whole region stretching from the Indian Ocean to the upper Paugani, Sabaki, and Tana fluvial basins may be com- pared in its general aspect to a uniform carpeted floor over which the running waters have traced a number of variegated designs. This level floor takes the name of Nyika, that is to say, "Savage Land," or "Wilderness," lacking suflficient moisture to support a vigorous tropical vegetation. Here the arid soil produces little beyond short herbaceous growths, thorny scrub, and here and there a few stunted trees. Nyika is iu fact a true veld, and would certainly have been so named by the Dutch settlers in South Africa. Its Wanyika inhabitants suppose that the rains are the property of the Swaheli people, because they possess the Koran, that is, the great book of divine magic ; and Krapf tells us that envoys from the inland tribes are frequently sent to the governor of Mombaz to beg the favour of a few much-needed showers. But for a space of at least 12 miles in breadth along the seaboard, the coastlands, being fertilised by the marine vapours, ure clothel with a rich mantle of tropical vegetation. Towards the interior also the monotonous Xyika plains are interrupted by the highlands which intercept the moisture-bearing clouds, whrle the running waters descending from these uplands support a growth of riverain forests winding in narrow" green belts across the country. The cocoanut-palm, which usually occurs elsewhere only along the seaboard tracts, here penetrates through the river valleys into the interior as far as the sIojHis of the Ndara hills, a distance of some 70 miles from the coast. The vegetation which encircles the base of Kiliraa-Njaro to a height of about 3,000 feet, seems all the more beautiful and diversified for the striking contrast presented by it to the arid and almost waterless wilderness of the Nyika country. Nevertheleis the forest growths of these lower buttresses have scarcely atropical