The Kilima-Njaro Expedition by Harry Johnston

Elsewhere in this work I have briefly pointed out the main features in the physical geography of the Kilima-njaro region, the dry, almost uninhabited plains, covered with coarse yellow grass and stunted trees, save where perennial streams induce rich vegetation; the misty snow-capped mountains, where the damp climate causes a verdure and a freshness reminding us of the fairest portions of our own island; the majestic forests that clothe certain districts like Taveita, or, not far distant, the broad flats white with natron-salt, the beds of dried-up lakes. With a country offering such very diverse features there are naturally wide ranges of temperature and an infinite variety of climate. Two days' climb on Kilima-njaro will transfer you from equatorial heat to Arctic cold. You may change your surroundings in this short period from the tropical vegetation of Taveita to a lifeless wilderness of ice, rocks, and snow. Midway up the mountain there are lovely regions, mild, equable, and moist, with a climate resembling a Devonshire summer. Here the intense verdure and the luxuriance of fern life testify to the constant showers of gentle rain. A few thousand feet below, in the salt plains, you may be parched and scorched by the hot desert winds, recalling-though in a much modified degree-the sirocco or khamsīn of Northern Africa. In the forests of Taveita the (to me, not disagreeable) unvarying, moist, greenhouse warmth of the tropical lowlands awaits you. Here, perhaps, the utmost range of the thermometer during the twenty-four hours will be ten or twelve degrees. In the outer plains it may vary from 91° in the early afternoon to 58° before dawn.

During the four months (June-September) of my stay in Moši, at an altitude of 5000 feet, the average readings in the shade of the thermometer were as follows: At noon, 71°; at 8 p.m., 60°; at 6 a.m., 58°. The lowest reading at noon was 68° (August 12th); the highest 80° (July 3rd and June 12th). The lowest reading at night (from 10 to 12 p.m.) was 54°; the highest 62. In my more elevated collecting stations, at 10,000 and 11,000 feet, the lowest night temperature (recorded) was 29°; the highest at 3 p.m., 65°. At Taveita the highest registered was 90° at 3 p.m.; the lowest at 4 a.m., 60°. The highest temperature ever recorded in the plains between Kilima-njaro and the coast was 91°.