CH. xiit] lake ALl^ERT XYANZA 385 



date palms gi-ew tall, and among the trees were some 

 -with orange-red flowers like trumpet flowers, growing 

 in grape-shaped clusters ; and hoth the flowers and the 

 seed-pods into which they turned stood straight up in 

 rows abo\'e the leafy tops of the trees that bore them. 



The first evening, as we sat in tlie cool, open cane 

 rest-house, word was })rought us that an elephant was 

 close at hand. We found him after ten minutes' walk : 

 a young bull, with very small tusks, not worth shooting. 

 For three-quarters of an hour we watched him, strolling 

 al)out and feeding, just on the edge of a wall of high 

 elephant grass. Although we were in plain sight, 

 ninety yards off, and sometimes moved about, he never 

 saw us ; for an elephant's eyes are very bad. He was 

 feeding on some thick, luscious grass, in the usual 

 leisurely elephant fashion, plucking a big tuft, waving 

 it nonchalantly about in his trunk, and finally tucking 

 it into his mouth ; pausing to rub his side against a tree, 

 or to sway to and fro as he stood ; and continually 

 waving his tail and half cocking his ears. 



At noon on January 5, 1910, we reached Butiaba, a 

 sandspit and marsh on the shores of I^ake Albert 

 Nyanza. We had marched about one hundred and 

 sixty miles from Lake \^ictoria. We camped on the 

 sandy beach by the edge of the beautiful lake, looking 

 across its waters to the mountains that walled in the 

 opposite shore. At mid-day the whole landscape 

 trembled in the white, glaring heat ; as the afternoon 

 waned a wind blew off the lake, and the west kindled 

 in ruddy splendour as the sun went down. 



At Butiaba we took boats to go down the Nile to the 

 Lado country. The head of the water transportation 

 service in Uganda, Captain Hutchinson R N R. met 

 us, having most kindly decided to take charge of our 



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