Lake Victoria to Khartoum 



smooth waters above. Cormorants continually 

 fly up to the very foot of the falls, settling, and 

 being carried down, apparently half-drowned, in 

 their endeavours to snatch their finny prey from 

 the swirling waters. Down they come, and, on 

 reaching the end of the tumbling waters, back 

 they fly again religiously. Their efforts are 

 extraordinary ! 



Crocodiles abound here, chiefly in the quieter 

 water above the tumult and turmoil of the falls, 

 where there are no sunny rocks to bask on, and 

 where, therefore, the rifle in the hands of the 

 sportsman seeking to while away a monotonous 

 African afternoon in practising his cunning on the 

 cruel brutes, cannot be brought to bear with much 

 precision. 



Some short distance below the Ripon Falls 

 come the Owen Falls, which are hidden from 

 view in the impassable tangle of a primeval 

 forest ; indeed, from the Ripon Falls almost to 

 Lake Kioga, the casual traveller sees very little 

 of the actual river. The Owen Falls, with their 

 roaring rapids and turbulent waters, are, they tell 

 me, finer in their way than the Ripon Falls. 



For forty miles, to Kakindu, the river pursues 

 its lonely way, winding through a virgin forest, 

 unseen and little known, but making its presence 

 felt in the boomino: of the falls and songr of the 

 water between the forest giants which raise their 

 mighty trunks to the blue vault above. 



38 



