DOWN THE VICTORIA NILE 139 



cool, and spacious interiors, and sinking- into the soft rush-bed of the 

 floor, with something to drink which is, at any rate, not tepid, well 

 repays the glaring severities of a march under an Equatorial sun. 

 The 'banda,' however, is a luxury of which the traveler should beware, 

 for if it has stood for more than a week it becomes the home of innu- 

 merable insects, many of approved malevolence and venom, and spiril- 

 lum fever is almost invariably caught from sleeping in old shelters 

 or on disused camping-grounds. 



"The best of all methods of progression in Central Africa — how- 

 ever astonishing it may seem— is the bicycle. In the dry season the 

 paths through the bush, smoothed by the feet of natives, afiford an 

 excellent surface. Even when the track is only two feet wide, and 

 when the densest jungle rises on either side and almost meets above 

 the head, the bicycle skims along, swishing through the grass and 

 brushing the encroaching bushes, at a fine pace ; and although at every 

 few hundred yards sharp rocks, loose stones, a water-course, or a steep 

 hill compel dismounting, a good seven miles an hour can usually be 

 maintained. And think what this means. From my own experience 

 I should suppose that with a bicycle twenty-five to thirty miles a day 

 could regularly be covered in Uganda, and, if only the porters could 

 keep up, all journeys could be nearly trebled, and every white officer's 

 radius of action proportionately increased. Nearly all the British 

 officers I met already possessed and used bicycles, and even the native 

 chiefs are beginning to acquire them. 



"But the march, however performed, has its termination; and 

 if, as is recommended, you stop to breakfast and rest upon the way, 

 the new camp will be almost ready upon arrival. During the heat of 

 the day every one retires to his tent or to the more effective shelter 

 of the *banda,' to read and sleep till the evening. Then as the sun gets 

 low we emerge to smoke and talk, and there is, perhaps, just time for 

 the energetic to pursue an antelope, or shoot a few guinea-fowl or 

 pigeons." 



Thus on and on the traveler goes, through the forest shades, 

 out of sight and hearing of the Nile, till at length, after a three days' 

 tramp, the latter part of which is through a native settlement, with its 

 crop of bananas and other plants, the Nile again appears, a glowing 



