A naturalist in Mid-Africa- being an account of a journey to the Mountains of the Moon and Tanganyika (1890) (14596047330)

Identifier: naturalistinmida00elli (find matches)
Title: A naturalist in Mid-Africa: being an account of a journey to the Mountains of the Moon and Tanganyika
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: Elliot, G. F. Scott (George Francis Scott), 1862-1934
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: London A.D. Innes & Co.
Contributing Library: Field Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: The Field Museum's Africa Council



Text Appearing Before Image:
ility withregard to the lives and wishes of other whitemen. In the Emin Pasha expedition, Dr. Stuhlmannencamped on the left bank of the Butagu, appar-ently almost exactly on the spot where the attackwas made on my people. He ascended themountain, so far as I could learn, at once, andthen proceeded along the high ridge whichbounds the Butagu valley on the left, until hecame, apparently, to within sight of a deep minorcross-valley, with a lake at the bottom, whichseparated him from the snow. This was a mostwonderful performance, and he certainly did farbetter than myself. I fancy, however, if he hadnot been before me, I should have had no troublewith the people. One of the most curious features of the valleyis the deep precipitous trench (see Fig. 28) whichthe river has cut out for itself. This is probablyin most places a hundred feet deep, and coveredwith an extraordinary profusion of climbingplants and shrubs. The wild banana, of whichthe photograph was taken, grew close to the river.
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 23.—The Wild Banana. THE SALT LAKE AND SEMLIKI VALLEY. 143 This plant seems to thrive everywhere in themountain, and I have seen it at 8,000 feet. Portions of the valley are very beautiful, par-ticularly where a gigantic shrubby balsam witha large white flower and spur four or five incheslong enlivens the darkness of the forest. Probablythis is visited by moths. Another kind of balsam common in the bananagroves is one of the main food stores of the hivebee. A large carpenter bee is common in this valley,usually on some of the large yellow Crotalariashrubs or numerous Melastomacese. It has veryvivid yellow and black bands—that is to say thefemale. The male is yellow all over, and neverseems to collect any food. Usually ten or twelveof the latter may be seen flying about near thetree from which they emerged in youth, andshining like golden jewels in the sunlight. The natives often brought me the burrows.These are made by a female in an old, halfrotten stick, or sometimes in a p