ito range. The people on the summit have a very different climate
and vegetation from those of the plains; but they have to spend a great
portion of their existence amidst white fleecy clouds, which, in the
rainy season, rest daily on the top of their favourite mountain. We were
kindly treated by these mountaineers on our first ascent; before our
second they were nearly all swept away by Mariano. Dr. Kirk found
upwards of thirty species of ferns on this and other mountains, and even
good-sized tree-ferns; though scarcely a single kind is to be met with on
the plains. Lemon and orange trees grew wild, and pineapples had been
planted by the people. Many large hornbills, hawks, monkeys, antelopes,
and rhinoceroses found a home and food among the great trees round its
base. A hot fountain boils up on the plain near the north end. It
bubbles out of the earth, clear as crystal, at two points, or eyes, a few
yards apart from each other, and sends off a fine flowing stream of hot
water. The temperature was found to be 174 degrees Fahr., and it boiled
an egg in about the usual time. Our guide threw in a small branch to
show us how speedily the Madse-awira (boiling water) could kill the
leaves. Unlucky lizards and insects did not seem to understand the
nature of a hot-spring, as many of their remains were lying at the
bottom. A large beetle had alighted on the water, and been killed before
it had time to fold its wings. An incrustation, smelling of sulphur, has
been deposited by the water on the stones. About a hundred feet from the
eye of the fountain the mud is as hot as can be borne by the body. In
taking a bath there, it makes the skin perfectly clean, and none of the
mud adheres: it is strange that the Portuguese do not resort to it for
the numerous cutaneous diseases with which they are so often afflicted.

A few clumps of the palm and acacia trees appear west of Morambala, on
the rich plain forming the tongue of land between the rivers Shire and
Zambesi. This is a good place for all sorts of game. The Zambesi canoe-
men were afraid to sleep on it from the idea of lions being there; they
preferred to pass the night on an island. Some black men, who
accompanied us as volunteer workmen from Shupanga, called out one evening
that a lion stood on the bank. It was very dark, and we could only see
two sparkling lights, said to be the lion's eyes looking at us; for here,
as elsewhere, they have a theory that the lio