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CHAPTER III. Vegetation, Climate, and People.

others can aid, and due precautions are observed, there is no reason why the Congo should be considered more unhealthy than India generally. It is certainly possible to live on the Congo. The writer, who was one of the first party of the Baptist Missionary Society’s Congo Mission, and has had five years’ pioneering work, had not a single fever during the last two and a half years. This is rather exceptional, but speaks well as to the possibilities. Indeed, there are many reasons why the climate of India should be considered worse. The Indian temperature is far higher, dysentery and cholera are annual scourges, and liver complaints far more common.

The excellent Observations Météorologiques of Dr. A. von Danckelman, of the International Association (Asher and Co., Berlin), gives most interesting statistics of the Lower Congo. The highest temperature registered by him at an elevation of 375 feet was 96·5° Fahr., and the lowest 53°, the highest mean temperature being 83°. The general midday temperature in the house in the hot season is 80°-85°; and at night 75°-80°. On the coast a cool breeze blows in from the sea

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