50 Bird Hunting on the White Nile. 



M 



CHAPTER III. 



THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE, 



Y last chapter treated of the river with the 

 stretches of grass and mud bordering upon 

 it. Fringing the mud and stretching inland, 

 for half a mile or so in most parts, but in 

 some places for two miles, is a belt of wooded 

 country. The trees composing this belt are chiefly of 

 the acacia family, many of them being of a gum-bearing 

 species, and under and around them is a thick under- 

 growth of mimosae, cacti, and other bushes. At the 

 time of our visit the trees and shrubs, with few 

 exceptions, were practically bare of leaves, so that, had 

 not the trees been thick with branches there would 

 have been but little cover. 



Vegetation seemed entirely at a standstill, and the 

 hot season might well be termed the winter in this 



