Where, but a few short months since, wide, watery
expanses rushed headlong towards the sea, their
clay-coloured waters swirling down in a relentless
grip great islands of marsh grasses, village débris
of various kinds, telling of sudden freshets and
quick disaster, great tree-trunks, and masses of
undergrowth, there now remain but tranquil, placid
channels, flowing smilingly at the bottom of steep,
cliff-like banks. ‘The morning grasses are heavy
with great drops of dew, and dense, white fogs, not
unlike the “smokes” of the Guinea Coast, occur
often, and frequently remain undispelled until nine
or ten o’clock, provoking an astonishing amount of
fluent profanity from the masters of the helpless
river steamers. A very large proportion of the
trees have now no leaves whatever ; the grass-fires
have devastated the face of the country, and left
but the seared and blackened skeletons of grass-
canes, of bushes, and shrubs. Beneath one’s feet a
raffle of fallen forest foliage, dry as so many chips,
swirls about in the breeze, and the atmosphere, as


STORMS 885


though also seeking to assume a wintry aspect,
becomes misty and opaque from the smoke of the
numerous fires.
August and September pass, and now the face of
the country prepares to cast off its sober, grey,
wintry garb, difficult though it may be for dwellers
at home to realise that such a term as “ wintry ”
can ever be applicable to the tropical landscapes
in which Africa is supposed to be never deficient.
