Tropical AfricaScribner and Welford, 1889 - 228 sidor |
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African Lakes Company African travel already Angola animal Arab Bandawé banks bark Blantyre body branch British camp caravan chief Chirombo civilisation cloth coal coast colour Congo Continent creature district earth earthworm East Central Africa elephant England English Equatorial European explorer fact feet fever forest geological Germany gneiss granite grass ground hand heart of Africa hippopotamus hundred Ilala inches inland insects interior ivory Karongas Lake Nyassa Lake Shirwa Lake Tanganyika land lives Livingstone looked miles mimetic mimicry Mission missionaries Moolu morning mountains native nature nautical miles never night passing Portugal Portuguese present probably puff-adder region river rocks route scale seen Shiré Highlands shores of Lake slave soil specimens spot steamer stone Sultan of Zanzibar surface Tanganyika plateau termite thing tion tree tribes tropical trunk tunnels tusk Upper Shiré village watch white ant white ants whole wonderful worms yards Zambesi
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Sida 127 - When we behold a wide, turf-covered expanse," says Mr. Darwin, " we should remember that its smoothness, on which so much of its beauty depends, is mainly due to all the inequalities having been slowly levelled by worms. It is a marvellous reflection that the whole of the superficial mould over any such expanse has passed, and will again pass, every few years, through the bodies of worms. The plough is one of the most ancient and most valuable of man's inventions ; but long before he existed the...
Sida 128 - It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures.
Sida 80 - Government explicitly stated, was to extend the knowledge already attained of the geography, and mineral and agricultural resources, of Eastern and Central Africa ; to improve our acquaintance with the inhabitants, and to endeavour to engage them to apply themselves to industrial pursuits, and to the cultivation of their lands, with a view to the production of raw material to be exported to England in return for British manufactures...
Sida 132 - The apparently solid logs of which the rest of the house is built are now mere cylinders of bark, and through the thickest of them you could push your little finger. Furniture, tables, chairs, chests of drawers, everything made of wood, is Inevitably attacked, and In a single night a strong trunk Is often riddled through and through and turned into matchwood. There Is no limit. In fact, to the depredation by these Insects, and they will eat books, or leather, or cloth, or anything, and in many parts...
Sida 56 - The African is often blamed for being lazy, but it is a misuse of words. He does not need to work ; with so bountiful a nature round him it would be gratuitous to work. And his indolence, therefore, as it is called, is just as much a part of himself as his flat nose, and as little blameworthy as slowness in a tortoise. . The fact is, Africa is a nation of the unemployed.
Sida 138 - But closer observation suggests that they are in no wise superintending operations, nor in any immediate way contributing to the structure, for they take not the slightest notice either of the workers or the works. They are posted there in fact as sentries, and there they stand, or promenade about, at the mouth of every tunnel, like sister Ann, to see if anybody is coming.
Sida 161 - Carlyle, in his blackest visions of ' shams and humbugs ' among human kind, never saw anything so finished in hypocrisy as the naturalist now finds in every tropical forest. There are to be seen creatures, not singly, but in tens of thousands, whose very appearance, down to the minutest spot and wrinkle, is an affront to truth ; whose every attitude is a pose for a purpose, and whose whole life is a sustained lie. Before these masterpieces of deception the most ingenious of human impositions are...
Sida 138 - ... and then starts off instantly for another load. Peering over the growing wall, one soon discovers one, two, or more termites of a somewhat larger build, considerably longer, and with a very different arrangement of the parts of the head, and especially of the mandibles. These...
Sida 149 - ... their bare sides carved and fluted into all sorts of fantastic shapes. In India these ant-heaps seldom attain a height of more than a couple of feet, but in Central Africa they form veritable hills, and contain many tons of earth. The brick houses of the Scotch missionstation on Lake Nyassa have all been built out of a single ants...
Sida 36 - African footpath is on the whole a bee-line, no fifty yards of it are ever straight. And the reason is not far to seek. If a stone is encountered no native will ever think of removing it. Why should he ? It is easier to walk round it. The next man who comes that way will do the same. . . . Whatever the cause, it is certain that for persistent straightforwardness in the general, and utter vacillation and irresolution in the particular, the African roads are unique in engineering.