Many Of The Botanical
Specimens, Laboriously Collected And Carefully Prepared By Dr. Kirk,
Were Destroyed, Or Double Work Imposed, By Their Accidentally Falling
Into Wet Places In The Cabin.
About the middle of August, after cutting wood at Shamoara, we again
steamed up the Shire, with the intention
Of becoming better
acquainted with the people, and making another and longer journey on
foot to the north of Lake Shirwa, in search of Lake Nyassa, of which
we had already received some information, under the name Nyinyesi
(the stars). The Shire is much narrower than the Zambesi, but
deeper, and more easily navigated. It drains a low and exceedingly
fertile valley of from fifteen to twenty miles in breadth. Ranges of
wooded hills bound this valley on both sides. For the first twenty
miles the hills on the left bank are close to the river; then comes
Morambala, a detached mountain 500 yards from the river's brink,
which rises, with steep sides on the west, to 4000 feet in height,
and is about seven miles in length. It is wooded up to the very top,
and very beautiful. The southern end, seen from a distance, has a
fine gradual slope, and looks as if it might be of easy ascent; but
the side which faces the Shire is steep and rocky, especially in the
upper half. A small village peeps out about halfway up the mountain;
it has a pure and bracing atmosphere; and is perched above mosquito
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.
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