No. 7 — Zoological Hi. suits of a Fifth Expedition to East Africa VII Itinerary and Conclusions By A. Loveridge CONTENTS Page Introduction 447 194S Itinerary 150 1949 Itinerary 465 Acknowledgements 472 Conclusions 473 Appendix on the Avifauna by C. W. Benson 481 Bibliography 486 INTRODUCTION In the summer of 1948 the author, financed by grants from the Museum of Comparative Zoology and Penrose Fund of the American Philosophical Society, proceeded to Nyasaland to investigate the dwindling fauna of its surviving montane forests. No adequate appraisal of the present situation is possible without giving some consideration to the human factors involved. During the journey from Tete that, on September 16, 1859, culminated in David Livingstone's discovery of Lake Nyasa, he encountered in-numerable burnt-out villages and reported that intertribal conflicts and raids by Arab slavers were affairs of almost daily occurrence. One consequence of these conditions was that the more peaceful agriculturists, seeking refuge from the aggressive warrior tribes, fled to the mountains where they made clearings in the forests for cultivation. The ceaseless demand for fresh land that characterizes the shifting agriculture practiced by Africans, eventually resulted in the destruction of the forest. How r ever, not agriculturists but alien pastoralists were the chief offenders. In November, 1835, the Ngoni, retreating northwards from their Zulu kinsmen, crossed the Zambezi near Tete and, under the leadership of Zongandaba, headed tow r ards Lake Tanganyika sub-jugating or massacring the tribes encountered en route. Many Ngoni settled in the highlands west of Lake Nyasa in what is now know r n as Angoniland. There, to provide grazing for the cattle they had captured, they destroyed vast tracts of forest. The results of this
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