440 THROUGH AFRICA FROM THE CAPE TO CAIRO. 



afterwards I found liini watching me even when I had returned to 

 my camp on tlie base of ]\[ount Eyres. 



On the last spur of the volcanoes there is a chief called Kahanga, of 

 some little importance, who has, to a great extent, emancipated himself 

 from the yoke of the Watusi; and farther down the Ruchurii Valley 

 the people are still more independent, till one comes to a thickly- 

 populated area two days from the Albert Edward, where the chiefs 

 deny that they owe any allegiance whatever to the Kigeri. The west 

 side of the valley is covered with heavy forest, while the east side is 

 undulating grass land, till 15 miles from the lake, when the country 

 settles down into one vast plain. The Ruchuru here has become 

 almost too salt to drink, and the vegetation changes abruptly in char- 

 acter, the luxuriant forest growth giving way to thorn scrub and 

 candelabra euphorbia, the l>eginning of the })lighted desolation char- 

 acteristic of the All)ert Nile Valley — s<'rub, mimosa trees, fan palm, 

 and euphorbia alternating till the region of th(> borassus, which begins 

 at the up]H'r junction of the Bahr-el-(iiraft'e. 



Where the Ruchuru tlows into the Al})ert Edward there is a large 

 extent of reedy marsh, peopled by a race of fishermen who appear to 

 be identical with the curious Wanyabugawho inhabit the similar coun- 

 try at the entrance of the Semliki into the Albert Lake. They are ])oth 

 quite distinct fi'om their lUMghbors, and are now isolated. I am inclined 

 to think that they, too, are survivors of past races, who are making a 

 last stand for existence in these im])enetrable wastes, where, leading 

 an amphibious life that does not bring them into contact with the more 

 sturdy races who have supplanted them, they may yet give an impor- 

 tant clue to the ethnological problem of Africa. Unfoitunately. the 

 ditiiculty of approaching these timid and retiring peoples, and the 

 thoroughness with which contiguous peoples assimilate the prev'ailing 

 tongue, the study is out' of great difficulty. The lake itself is rapidly 

 diminishing in extent, and it will be seen that our map of the east 

 coast has materially modified the supposed form. Two very recent 

 levels are clearly defined, from which it would appear that the 

 upheaval has taken place in tits and starts. The most recent level 

 would give the lake an additional 120 square miles. The insignificant 

 size of the euphorbia on this level compared with that on the next ter- 

 race argues that the last movement has taken place very recently, his- 

 torically speaking. The vegetation appeared to me to correspond in 

 age to that which I have mentioned as having grown on the great lava 

 lieds poured out by the eruption previous to that of three years ago. 



Two streams, the Sasa and the Ntungwe, flow to the Albert Edward 

 east of the Ruchuru, but lose themselves in an extensive marsh. The 

 old lake bed is rendered impassable by pits of tire, and huge jets of 

 smoke, shooting up from all directions, bear witness to the extent of 

 the volcanic activitv. Even to unscientific observers like ourselves, it 



