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II

THE CLIMATE

In Matabeleland and Mashonaland the heavy rains fall in the summer months of December, January, February, and March. During the dry season, when the rainfall is but slight, the climate seemed to me to be as delicious as any I had ever experienced. One who travels across the Matabele or Mashona Highlands in the winter months has cold nights and heavy dews for his bivouacs ; but by day he rides or walks like the old Athenians, ‘ through most pellucid air,’ with generally a keen health-giving breeze blowing and a cloudless sky overhead.

Even in the rainy summer months the climate is not unpleasant, neither is it seriously unhealthy. I never found the heat oppressive. There is nearly always a fresh wind; the down­pour is seldom continuous, and when between