New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-06-17

tho naople any complex wants. few yards oil
calico handful of beads, fill the measure OF thcir
desires when once the food question is sat siactor
settled, and nothing is easier than subsistence Ia
| Africa As to the drink habit which is peihg
forced uron the people of the Congo Valley through
the infamous greed of traders, whose eXtermiha
ton as vcrmin would be fully justified, that OF
course goes directly counter to every prospect oil
| civilization and the development Of new wants.
since its main effect is destroy the population up
| on the expansion of whose acquisitiveness the
! future commerce of the country depends. The Cen
trail African tribes have never worked yet because
| there is no necessity for work where they 1--we
| That they are not lazy in the sense OF Directing
| to work when they have an object is proved
| by the zeal and industry displayed by numbers
| of them in road-makng when employed and
| guided by white men.
| Professor Drummond gives extracts from his
diary which illustrate the daily life of the African
traveller most wildly. The awe Of the natives
for the white man he thinks so profound as to be
! a guarantee against treachery though it must be
said that the experience of Stanley and other eX-
plorers does not Dear out this theory fully.
There are, however, drawbacks to travel and
serious enough, as may be judged from the follow
| ing statement:
The real dangers to n traveller arc Of a simpler
| kind. Central Africa is the finest hunting country
! in the world Here arc the elephant, the bunaiO,
the lion, the leopard, the rhinoceros, the hippo
| potamus, the giraffe, the hyena. the Gland, the
! zebra, and endless species of small deer ana
antelope Then the whole country is covered with
| traps &. catch these animas-deep pits with a
| Jagged stake rising up in the middle, the whole
| rooted with turf and grass, so exactly IKE
the forest bed that only the trained eye can detect
| their presence | have found myself walking un-
! consciously a narrow neck between two OF these
pits, when couple Of steps to either SIDE would
| almost certainly have meant death. Snakes, too,
! hlQeOuS
may turn up at any moments and in bathing,
which one eagerly does at every pool the sharpesT
| lookout is scarcely match Tor the dlapoIcaA
| craft of tie crocodile.
One of these dangers the Professor narrowly
escaped later and he tells the story in his chapter
| on mimicry:
! / was once just throwing myself down under
| tree to rest when, STOPPING to clear the Spot l
| noticed peculiar pattern among the leaves.
| largest size, its thick back only visible and us
fangs within few inches OF my lace as stooPg, ,e
| itself that, but for the exceptional caution Whch
! in African travel becomes a habit, i shonld GER
| tainy have sat down upon II, and TO SIT Gown
uDon n puff adder is to sit down for the last tlme
| think this celebration in the puhadder is more
than that of warning, and that TINS semlsonnoichV
attitude is not always the mere attitude OF repose.
This reptile lay lengthwise, concealed az Dut va
| few inches among the yithered leaves Now inc
popularity of the puff adder is that 1t strikes
! backward. Lying on the ground, therefore 10
! commands as it were its whole rear, ana inc
| momcnt any part is touched, the head doubles
| haclIward With inconceivable swiftness and the
Doison.fang close upon their victim. The pun,
! adder in this way forms sort OF horrld trap see
| in the woods, which may be altogether unperceVed
till it shuts with a sudden spring upon lts prey
The chapters on White Ants and the Ways OF
| African Insects are among the most interesting
in the book In the first-named the plausible
theory is maintained that the white ant in Africa
reforms the functions ascrbed'by Darwin to the
ear;bworm in other parts Of the world. The earth
worm as the great naturalist demonstrated per
| forms wonderful part in constantly turning over
and changing the surface of the soil; bringing up
that which is below and exposing 1t to the action
| If sun and rain and air and all vvifying and
| fcrtjljzing influences In Africa, during eight
months Of the year, the soil is baked so hard
| that the earhworm could not penetrate It, The
white ant however, Professor Drummond holds,
takes his place, and in carrying his myriad gal
| leries and covered ways over the trunks and
branches of the trees changes the surface soil,
exposes it ., atmospheric influences, and thus plays
| the part Ct natural and animated plough and
| fertilizer.
The chapter on the mimetic insects of Africa is
really fascinating dealing as it does with what,
as the author puts it, almost seems question
! Of Natures ethics. The strange countcrfeitS which
she here produces are such perfect limitations of
| inanimate objects frequently almost to defy de-
| lection. They are, as it were, 1" got up" with
superb hstrionic skill TO mimic leaves, blades
Of grass, twigs, patches of lichen and all kinds
Of natural obj cts Here is Professor Drummonds
| lively account of his first experience with these
| queer creatures:
My introduction to them occurred on the Dor
| ders of Lake Shrwa-one of the smaller and less
! known of the great African lakcs-and / shall re-
cord the incident exactly | find il in my notes
had stopped one day among some tall dry grass to
ply linz. 4 or..iI xt-ln. of
men suddenly shouted Chirombo" Chirombo'
means an inediblc beast of any kind, and turned
round to see where the animal was. The native
| pointed straight at myself. l could see nothing,
but he approached, and pointing to wisp of hay
! which bad fallen on my coat, repeated "Chirom-
| bot" Believing that it must be insect
over it, and told him pontedly there was
Chirombo' there. He smiled, and pointing again
| The hay itself the ChirOmbO. ! do not
| asgerate when / say that that wisp of hay was
no more like an insect than my aneroid barometer
| | had mentally resolved never 10 be taken in by
any of these 1nimctic frauds; | was incredulous
enough to suspect that the descriptions of Wallace
and the others were somewhat highly cOlored; but
] confess to have been completely stutihed and
beaten by the very first mmetic form met 1t
was one OF tHat very felhrhaog Ialy, uIe
could there be such another creature. Take two
inches Of dried yellow grass-stalk. such as one
might pluck TO run through the stem OF pipe;
then take six other pieces nearly as long ana
quarter as thick; bend each in the middle at any
angle you like, stick them in three opposite pairs,
and again at any angle you like, upon the first
ss-stalk and you have my Chirombo. When
YOU catch him, his limbs are twisted about at
every angle, if the whole were made of one long
stalk of the most delicate grass, hinged in dozen
places and then gently crushed up into DISNEY
clled heap Having once assumed position, by
wonderful instinct he never moves or wares one
of his many angles by half n degree. The way
this insect keeps up the delusiOn is indeed almost
as wonderful as the mmicry itself you may turn
him about and over and over, but he is mere
dried grass, and nothing will induce him to ac-
knowledge the animal kingdom by the faintest
suspicion of spontaneous movement. All the
shamming death; but how such emaciated and
juicelcss skeletons should ever presume to be
alive is the real mystery.
What is still more singular than the assmila-