88 



THE KINGDOM OP UGANDA 



certain dreadfulness. The Euro- 

 pean, in fact, feels, consciously 

 or unconsciously, that he is out 

 of his element and his age, that, 

 as in Mr. Wells's suggestive 

 stoiy, " The Time ^Machine," 

 the wheels of time have been 

 reversed for him, and he has 

 been transported back to a past 

 epoch in the earth's history, 

 before this planet was fitted in 

 its atmosphere and surroundings 

 for the presence of modern man. 

 I am greatly interested in botany ; 

 as a painter I love almost more 

 than anything else the forms 

 of vegetation, the effects of sun- 

 light streaming through many 

 different tints of green, the 

 gorgeous flowers on tropical trees, 

 the black masses of mouldering 

 wood, the gleaming white 

 columns, of aspiring trees, the 

 emerald cascades of innumerable 

 tiny leaflets, and the huge bold 

 designs in individual leaves and 



fronds' that can be measured in feet and yards ; yet somehow or other I. 

 feel oppressed and disquieted in these African forests. 



Apart from the real ]rat temporary annoyance of biting ants, or the 

 occasional danger of death from a puff-adder, there is a certain atmosphere 

 exhaled from this tremendous development of vegetation which must be 

 deleterious to a white man's health, perhaps containing too much carbonic 

 acid — the atmosphere of the Tertiary, and not of the Quaternary, Epoch. 

 Unless, too, there be a broad road traversing the forest (in which case one 

 is much more cheerful, and the pure beauty of the scene a^jpeals to one 

 much more vividly), there is a nightmare feeling as one tries to force a 

 way through the dense undergrowth. The indiarublier vines scale the 

 highest trees and launcli their thick ropes in loops and in sheer descents. 

 Sometimes the straight liana ropes are made beautiful by a lateral out- 

 growth of glossy leaves and white scented blossoms. Sometimes their 

 contorted loops and twirls and snake-like coils give one the impression 

 that not a few botanists are beginning to entertain of the existence in 



74. FOREST IX UGANDA 



