AND THE RUDOLF BxVSIJST 



33 



acacias 8o cliavaeteiistic of African mountains at about (J, GOO feet in 

 altitude. Below tliese he will skirt grassy downs, and will notice in the 

 ravines and stream valleys the emerald-gi'een ornamental foliage of the 

 wild banana and the graceful fronds of the wild date i)ahn. Tlien, at a 

 lower descent still, comes downright tropical vegetation where the ground 

 is suitable. If he can quit the railway, and wander away from the line 

 to the black patches of forest about the streams, he would enter many a 

 lovely bower, wherein dense foliage overhead produces shade that ai)pears 

 black in comparison with the dazzling sunlight outside. As the valley 



27. NEAK THE MAU SUMMIT, UGANDA KAILWAY 



"broadens and broadens, and readies down almost to the level of the 

 Victoria Nyanza, there are sluggish, muddy rivers flowing through a 

 country that easily degenerates into marsh. Here you reach the tirst 

 habitations of native man— or did before the construction of the Uganda 

 Eailway revolutionised all this part of Africa. Until within three years 

 ago there were no resident settled natives dwelling along this line of 

 route, no natives from whom food could be purchased between Kikuyu, 

 200 miles away to the east, and these first outlying villages of the coast 

 jDopulation round the Victoria Nyanza. 



The people inhabiting these settlements will be probably for a year or 

 VOL. I. ^ 



