A naturalist in Mid-Africa: being an account of a journey to the Mountains of the Moon and Tanganyika . to prevent mytent from being hurried down the valley, clouds ina high stratum of the atmosphere drifting gentlytowards the top of the mountain. Both this evening wind and the ascent of thecloud are, I think, pretty easily explained. Thelower slopes of the mountain are rapidly heated by the sun, more rapidlyperhaps than the plain, andthe hot air rises, carryingwith it, and perhaps par-tially dissolving, the cloudAt about 6 the wholeside of the mountain isclear of cold air, and thestratum
A naturalist in Mid-Africa: being an account of a journey to the Mountains of the Moon and Tanganyika . to prevent mytent from being hurried down the valley, clouds ina high stratum of the atmosphere drifting gentlytowards the top of the mountain. Both this evening wind and the ascent of thecloud are, I think, pretty easily explained. Thelower slopes of the mountain are rapidly heated by the sun, more rapidlyperhaps than the plain, andthe hot air rises, carryingwith it, and perhaps par-tially dissolving, the cloudAt about 6 the wholeside of the mountain isclear of cold air, and thestratum in contact withthe snow rushes down to the heated lower noticed also—and the fact seems to bear out thistheory—that when rain is falling or has fallenduring the afternoon on the lower slopes, thiswind does not blow down the valley with thesame force. I do not know enough of meteorology to be ableto explain several other points which I instance, rain is most unusual in the lowerlevels till the afternoon, and the greatest quantityseems always to fall during the night. Again,. Fig. 31.—Sea Breeze. METEOROLOGY AND CLIMATE. 197 I have watched from my camp on Kivata athunderstorm apparently doing its best to reachthe mountain, but passing northwards and coastingit 8 or 9 miles away. The plains were delugedwith rain, but scarcely a drop fell in my another occasion a horizontal bank of cloudstried during the whole of an afternoon to reachmy camp, and only succeeded at about 7 Inboth these cases there must have been somevertical motion in the atmosphere which preventedtheir approach. The climate of the Central African Watershed,by which I mean the highlands from 4,500 or 5,000feet upwards, which form the backbone of the con-tinent dividing those streams which eventually fallinto the Kagera river from those which enterTanganyika and the Albert Edward, is probablya very fair one for Europeans. It is true thatthere are numerous swamp-rivers, and my
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
