( cxiv ) 



"January 11, 1916, Kabale vid Mbarara, Uganda. 



" I have been unable to write to you for a long time, for 

 military reasons ! About the end of November we started 

 out on a long safari westwards, ending at a point on the 

 Kagera River about 1° 10' S. and 30° 50' E. ! The idea was 

 to make a bridge across and attack a German (supposed !) 

 fortified position on the S. side of the river. We eventually 

 got the bridge across, but could find no enemy on the other 

 side, and all we did was to burn a large camp. It was very 

 interesting country. On our way I got a distant view of the 

 great snow peaks of Ruwenzori, very far away, but towering 

 up in a sublime manner. 



" The Kagera valley was very nice : the river at one time 

 evidently, like the Thames, filled up a broad valley between 

 hills rising up to about 1500 feet on each side, but now it has 

 cut a narrower channel for itself, and flows through grassy 

 meadow-land, covered with fine grass and dotted thorny 

 Mimosas — very delightful country to walk in (but the haunt of 

 Glossina morsitans !). We made a long stay in camp by the 

 river — while looking for the enemy ! — and I did want my net ! 

 I had left all that sort of thing behind, as we had only been 

 allowed four porters each to carry kit. There were several 

 nice Teracolus, and other Pierines new to me, and I saw one 

 Acraea zetes of a type as western as it could be. I found that 

 one or two species of Pierines, which had been exceptionally 

 scarce at Kakindu and Rukuba, abounded here, so that 

 Kakindu was the E. limit. 



" I went on one patrol in force for three days into the enemy 

 country S. of the Kagera River, — most curious country, a 

 mass of jumbled-up hills all about the same height, cutting 

 into each other anyhow, so that one would very easily lose 

 one's way; grass-covered — no trees — but, where weather had 

 cut out ravines on the sides of the hills, enough soil had 

 apparently collected to nourish a thick growth of bush, which 

 filled up these ravines, so that from a distance they were marked 

 out by dark streaks. I was much pleased to see a herd of 

 seven magnificent Roan antelope — which I believe is next 

 largest to Eland. The generic name Hippotragus certainly 

 does express a characteristic which impresses itself on you — 



