Until Maroro, the climate had the aspect of the rainy seasons. After that meridian, throughout Eastern Usagara the weather held up; but these masses of hills seem rarely, if ever, to be without rain. The dews are remarkably heavy, forming a contrast with Unyamwezi and the inland regions.
At Zungomero, reached about the end of December, the violent showers which fell like buckets-full, piercing at once the thickest thatches, were called by the people the ‘Sowing Rains.’ All were busy in the fields, and labour was protracted till about the first week in December.
The sea-breeze extends to Zungomero, setting in at 9 to 10 a.m. In foul weather sea-gulls are blown up from the coast. The vicinity of the Duthumi hills to the N. E., which are rarely, if ever, seen in a clear outline, and the mountains of Usagara westward, render this a region of almost perpetual rain. Its summer lasts about one fortnight, beginning in early January, at which time no rain falls.
OBSERVATIONS MADE IN KHUTU AND UZARAMO, DURING THE MONTHS OF JANUARY AND FEBRUARY, 1859.
DAY
1 Temperature of air at sunrise, 74; at 4 p.m., 95; at sunset, 80. Wet, muggy morn. Wind E. Shower at 5 p.m. Cloudy even.
2 Temperature of air at sunrise, 73; at 4 p.m., 98; at sunset, 80. Fine morn. Wind E. Cirro-cumulus. Few high clouds. Fine even and clear night.
3 Temperature of air at sunrise, 74; at 4 p.m., 104; at sunset, 80. Fine morn. Sea-breeze and clouds at 10 a.m. Violent rain from E. at 9 p.m.
4 Temperature of air at sunrise, 74; at 4 p.m., 109; at sunset, 84. Stratus on earth. Sea-breeze and sun at 10 a.m., and at sunset.