The juices of plants, and decaying vegetable matter in the mud, probably form the natural food of mosquitoes, and blood is not necessary for their existence.They appear so commonly at malarious spots, that their presence may be taken as a hint to man to be off to more healthy localities.None appear on the high lands.On the low lands they swarm in myriads.The females alone are furnished with the biting apparatus, and their number appears to be out of all proportion in excess of the males.At anchor, on a still evening, they were excessively annoying; and the sooner we took refuge under our mosquito curtains, the better.The miserable and sleepless night that only one mosquito inside the curtain can cause, is so well known, and has been so often described, that it is needless to describe it here.One soon learns, from experience, that to beat out the curtains thoroughly before entering them, so that not one of these pests can possibly be harboured within, is the only safeguard against such severe trials to one's tranquillity and temper.
A few miles above Mboma we came again to the village (16 degrees 44 minutes 30 seconds S.) of the chief Tingane, the beat of whose war-
drums can speedily muster some hundreds of armed men.The bows and poisoned arrows here are of superior workmanship to those below.
Mariano's slave-hunting parties stood in great awe of these barbed arrows, and long kept aloof from Tingane's villages.His people were friendly enough with us now, and covered the banks with a variety of articles for sale.The majestic mountain, Chipirone, to which we have given the name of Mount Clarendon, now looms in sight, and further to the N.W. the southern end of the grand Milanje range rises in the form of an unfinished sphinx looking down on Lake Shirwa.The Ruo (16 degrees 31 minutes 0 seconds S.) is said to have its source in the Milanje mountains, and flows to the S.W., to join the Shire some distance above Tingane's.A short way beyond the Ruo lies the Elephant marsh, or Nyanja Mukulu, which is frequented by vast herds of these animals.We believe that we counted eight hundred elephants in sight at once.In the choice of such a strong hold, they have shown their usual sagacity, for no hunter can get near them through the swamps.They now keep far from the steamer; but, when she first came up, we steamed into the midst of a herd, and some were shot from the ship's deck.A single lesson was sufficient to teach them that the steamer was a thing to be avoided; and at the first glimpse they are now off two or three miles to the midst of the marsh, which is furrowed in every direction by wandering branches of the Shire.Afine young elephant was here caught alive, as he was climbing up the bank to follow his retreating dam.When laid hold of, he screamed with so much energy that, to escape a visit from the enraged mother, we steamed off, and dragged him through the water by the proboscis.
As the men were holding his trunk over the gunwale, Monga, a brave Makololo elephant-hunter, rushed aft, and drew his knife across it in a sort of frenzy peculiar to the chase.The wound was skilfully sewn up, and the young animal soon became quite tame, but, unfortunately the breathing prevented the cut from healing, and he died in a few days from loss of blood.Had he lived, and had we been able to bring him home, he would have been the first AFRICAN elephant ever seen in England.The African male elephant is from ten to a little over eleven feet in height, and differs from the Asiatic species more particularly in the convex shape of his forehead, and the enormous size of his ears.In Asia many of the males, and all the females, are without tusks, but in Africa both sexes are provided with these weapons.The enamel in the molar teeth is arranged differently in the two species.By an admirable provision, new teeth constantly come up at the part where in man the wisdom teeth appear, and these push the others along, and out at the front end of the jaws, thus keeping the molars sound by renewal, till the animal attains a very great age.The tusks of animals from dry rocky countries are very munch more dense and heavier than those from wet and marshy districts, but the latter attain much the larger size.
The Shire marshes support prodigious numbers of many kinds of water-fowl.An hour at the mast-head unfolds novel views of life in an African marsh.Near the edge, and on the branches of some favourite tree, rest scores of plotuses and cormorants, which stretch their snake-like necks, and in mute amazement turn one eye and then another towards the approaching monster.By and-by the timid ones begin to fly off, or take "headers" into the stream; but a few of the bolder, or more composed, remain, only taking the precaution to spread their wings ready for instant flight.The pretty ardetta (Herodias bubulcus), of a light yellow colour when at rest, but seemingly of a pure white when flying, takes wing, and sweeps across the green grass in large numbers, often showing us where buffaloes and elephants are, by perching on their backs.Flocks of ducks, of which the kind called "Soriri" (Dendrocygna personata) is most abundant, being night feeders, meditate quietly by the small lagoons, until startled by the noise of the steam machinery.Pelicans glide over the water, catching fish, while the Scopus (Scopus umbretta) and large herons peer intently into pools.The large black and white spur-winged goose (a constant marauder of native gardens) springs up, and circles round to find out what the disturbance can be, and then settles down again with a splash.Hundreds of Linongolos (Anastomus lamelligerus)
