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Unfortunately, though so rich and fertile, the land is not as a rule very healthy for Europeans, though there are signs of improvement in this respect. The principal scourges are black-water fever and dysentery, besides ordinary malarial fever, malarial ulcers, pneumonia and bronchitis. The climate is agreeable, and except in the low-lying districts is never unbearably hot; while on the high mountain plateaus frost frequently occurs during the dry season.
See Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambezi, &c., by David and Charles Livingstone (1865); Last Journals of David Livingstone, edited by the Rev. Horace Waller (1874); L. Monteith Fotheringham, Adventures in Nyasaland (1891); Henry Drummond, Tropical Africa (4th ed., 1891); Rev. D.C. Scott, An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of the Mang'anja Language, as spoken in British Central Africa (1891); Sir H.H. Johnston, British Central Africa (2nd ed., 1898); Miss A. Werner, The Natives of British Central Africa (1906); John Buchanan, The Shiré Highlands (1885); Lionel Décle, Three Years in Savage Africa (1898); H.L. Duff, Nyasaland under the Foreign Office (1903); J.E.S. Moore, The Tanganyika Problem (1904); articles on North Eastern and North Western Rhodesia (chiefly by Frank Melland) in the Journal of the African Society (1902-1906); annual Reports on British Central Africa published by the Colonial Office; various linguistic works by Miss A. Werner, the Rev. Govan Robertson, Dr R. Laws, A.C. Madan, Father Torrend and Monsieur E. Jacottet.
(H. H. J.)
[1] The nomenclature of several of these rivers is perplexing. It should be borne in mind that the Luanga (also known as the Lunga) is a tributary of the Luengwe-Kafukwe, itself often called Kafue, and that the Luangwa (or Loangwa) is an independent affluent of the Zambezi (q.v.).
[2] The organized armed forces and police are under the direction of the imperial government throughout British Central Africa, and number about 880 (150 Sikhs, 730 negroes and 14 British officers).
BRITISH COLUMBIA, the western province of the Dominion of Canada. It is bounded on the east by the continental watershed in the Rocky Mountains, until this, in its north-westerly course, intersects 120° W., which is followed north to 60° N., thus including within the province a part of the Peace river country to the east of the mountains. The southern boundary is formed by 49° N. and the strait separating Vancouver Island from the state of Washington. The northern boundary is 60° N., the western the Pacific Ocean, upon which the province fronts for about 600 m., and the coast strip of Alaska for a further distance of 400 m. Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands, as well as the smaller islands lying off the western coast of Canada, belong to the province of British Columbia.
Physical Features.?British Columbia is essentially a mountainous country, for the Rocky Mountains which in the United States lie to the east of the Great Basin, on running to the north bear toward the west and approach the ranges which border the Pacific coast. Thus British Columbia comprises practically the entire width of what has been termed the Cordillera or Cordilleran belt of North America, between the parallels of latitude above indicated. There are two ruling mountain systems in this belt?the Rocky Mountains proper on the north-east side, and the Coast Range on the south-west or Pacific side. Between these are subordinate ranges to which various local names have been given, as well as the "Interior Plateau"?an elevated tract of hilly country, the hill summits having an accordant altitude, which lies to the east of the Coast Range. The several ranges, having been produced by successive foldings of the earth's crust in a direction parallel to the border of the Pacific Ocean, have a common trend which is south-east and north-west. Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands are remnants of still another mountain range, which runs parallel to the coast but is now almost entirely submerged beneath the waters of the Pacific. The province might be said to consist of a series of parallel mountain ranges with long narrow valleys lying between them.
