and forming the base camp at Sirgoi, or as near the mountain as water would allow .... Having selected such a camping ground he should have realised that his colleague, being quite a novice, might be expected to be deficient in judgment, since he was no longer being "personally conducted," and should have sent a patrol to Sirgoi, each to search for his missing colleague.... Had it been possible to allow me another month, and the selection of my colleagues, I think I may make bold to say that every corner of the country would have been visited, and to the map handed in with this report the survey of the outlying districts would have been added. It was a physical impossibility for any man to have attained this object single-handed."
Major Gibbons mentions that he was particularly fortunate with regard to his scientific observations, and then treats of the general character, capacity and prospects of the territory for purposes of European settlement under the five principal headings of (1) climate, (2) quality of soil, (3) water supply, (4) accessibility, and (5) indigenous population.
Major Gibbon’s Detailed Report.
(1) THE CLIMATE.—A dry atmosphere at an altitude of 6,000 to 8,500 feet, irrespective of mountains and tempered with the warmth of a tropical sun, cannot be unhealthy. A glance at the appended table of temperatures will show that during the earlier half of our sojourn on the plateau the minimum temperature ranged from 37 deg. to 47 deg. Fahr.; gradually rising to over 50 deg. at the end of February. This is probably the hottest month of the year—that period at the close of the dry season immediately preceding the rains. I understand that during the coldest month frost is—as would be expected at such an altitude—a matter of almost nightly occurrence, the thermometer sometimes registering as much as 6 and 7 deg. of frost. With a maximum of 70 to
75 deg. in the semi-hot season, rising to an occasional 90 to 100 deg. at the hottest period, it will be seen that there is but little difference between the temperature on the plateau and that of Europe during a fine summer, though owing to the dryness of the atmosphere of a high temperature in the former is less unbearable than a similar one in our lower altitudes. The absence of swamp and still water removes what is, perhaps, the one condition which could make such a country unhealthy. I never so much as heard a mosquito from the time of leaving Mombasa till the date of our return. Thus it is reasonable to suppose that on this plateau the "anopheles" mosquito does not exist, and, if scientists be correct in asserting that the "anopheles" has acquired a monopoly in malarial microbe dealing, that malady will not afflict the future population. As the "tsetse" fly is credited with the sole power of transmitting the "sleeping sickness" germ, and as there is no "fly belt" here, this extraordinary disease is improbable, if not impossible. Flies of any sort are, in fact, scarcely ever met with.
It would, therefore, appear, says Major Gibbons, that the incoming white population must bring with it the hundred and one diseases that have been acquired and fostered in Europe, and by over-indulgence and irregular living must neutralise the advantages of the pure plateau air, or else the doctor's trade on Guas N'gishu (the site of the proposed colony) will not be profitable.
(2) THE SOIL.—The soil of the proposed colony, says Major Gibbons, is, for the most part, of that rich red African clay, the productive nature of which is so well known. In certain places (which, however, form but a small proportion of the site) the land lies close to the surface, the soil is largely charged with pulverised volcanic matter. In such districts a good grass grows, but, owing to the porous nature of the lava bed, vegetation dries and withers