METEOROLOGY AND GEOLOGY 301 



are heavy rains in January, February, and March ; sHght rains in April ; 

 heavy rains in July and August; and light rains again in October and 

 November. The average yearly temperature is probably 60", the ther- 

 mometer seldom going above 80' or below 40\ There is not a great 

 range of temperature between the seasons; indeed, in this equatorial 

 region the seasons are very variable, and are chieflv the distinction between 

 a month that is very wet and a month that is rather dry. The climate 

 may be said in general to be a perpetual summer of a mild European type. 



(3) The Forest Region. — This division of general tropical luxuriance 

 includes all the countries bordering on Lake Victoria Nyanza, Lake Albert, 

 Lake Kioga, and Lake Albert Edward, the valley of the Semliki and 

 of the Victoria Nile between Kioga and the Kipon Ealls, the forested 

 slopes of Mount Elgon and the Nandi Escarpment, and all the Kavirondo 

 country. This region is emphatically a country of thunderstorms, which 

 occur here with the frequency and violence to which I have made allusion 

 in Chapter IIL These thunderstorms, in fact, are almost the only climatic 

 drawback ; for although the generality of this land does not lie much 

 above 4,000 feet in altitude, the sun rarely causes extreme discomfort 

 by his heat. Sometimes the thermometer may touch 100", but this is 

 infrequent. More often the higli temperatures are 92° or 93° ; while the 

 average day temperature is not more than 85 . The nights are nearlv 

 always cool, the thermometer falling at least as low as 70°. It has been 

 calculated by members of the Church Missionary Society that the average 

 minimum temperature in Uganda is 52'1 and the maximum 81 '8°. Rain 

 is abundant, and although it is heavier in some months than in others,, 

 there is scarcely a month of the year which is without rain. The heaviest 

 rains generally occur in January, February, ]March, and April, October and 

 November. I should say that the average rainfall in this Forest Region 

 was 60 inches. It is subject, however, to variability. In 1899 the rainfall 

 recorded at two stations in Uganda only averaged 34 inches, which fell 

 on 61 days. In 1900 the average rainfall at the same stations in Uganda 

 proper was 60 inches. In 1896, 51 "6 inches were registered in Uganda, 

 falling on 136 days. Tlie rainfall in the same district in 1897 was^ 

 67 inches, and the number of rainy days was 164. In 1898 the total 

 rainfall at the same stations in Uganda was 50 inches, falling in 131 days. 

 In 1899 the rain only fell on 61 days during the year in Uganda, and 

 elsewhere to the east of Uganda a severe drought visited the Protectorate.* 

 The rainfall in Toro is probably 80 inches per annum (I am not speaking 

 of the slopes of Kuwenzori, which will be treated of separately). In Buddu, 



* It would seein as though during the seven years from 1879 to 1885 inclusive 

 the rainfall iu the central part of Uganda was slightly balow the average here given,, 

 and, in fact, only averaged about 48 inches. 



