AND THE VICTORIA NYAXZA 



77 



for habitation. The land often rises on these ishmds to considerable heights 

 above the lake level— imposing downs covered with short emerald-green 

 grass. Along their sliores, and in the valleys between the downs, there 

 is extremely rich forest. The Basese are great fishermen, and make long 

 and daring voyages in their red canoes. These are similar to the canoes 

 of Uganda, and are made of adzed planks of soft wood fastened together 

 with leather thongs and caulked. 



The only large mammal on the Sese Islands is that strange marsh- 

 dwelling antelope (or, as 1 prefer to call it, tragelai)h; which was first 

 discovered by Speke, the Lirnnotragus spd-el. This is a creature covered 

 with long, weedy, chocolate-grey hair, with white spots about the jaws, 

 and horns like a bushlnick's, only nmcli larger. I shall have more to 



66. spekk'.s TRAGKLAi'H (f /M\o/K.u:rs sp/;/:/:/} 



say of this creature in dealing with the zoology of the country. It still 

 frequents, though in much reduced numbers, certain uninhabited i.-^lands 

 in the South Sese group. Soon after the establishment of the I^)ritish 

 Protectorate it came to the knowledge of two English officers who were 

 employed in connection with a surveying ex[)editic>n that tiiese antelopes 

 were to be found in numbers on some of the Sese Islands. They accordingly 

 came here in canoes, landed on the island, and killed, the natives report, 

 over fifty of these creatures, for no other pur})Ose apparently than the 

 mere pleasure of slaughtering a rare and defenceless animal. A few lieads 

 were taken awav as tro[)hies, but for some time the whitening liones of 

 the uselessly destroyed antelopes testified to an unfortunate ejjisode in 

 the history of this animal, which in earlier days, the natives say, was 

 quite a marked feature of the archipelago, swimming to and fro between 

 the islands. Since this sporting ex[)e(lition Si^'ke's tragelapli has lieen 



