The Nile 



tenseness of tropical vegetation. Everything 

 wears a garb of vivid green. The grass, the 

 trees, the creepers, the reeds, all seem to be of a 

 more violent green than one has ever seen before, 

 perhaps because of the miles of arid stony ground, 

 stunted trees, and burnt-up forest grass that one 

 has passed through. It is rather startling, and 

 looks as if the whole landscape has been steeped 

 in crhne de menthe ! 



The scenery on the left bank above the ver- 

 dure is striking. The escarpment, starting on 

 the higher level of the Murchison Falls, continues 

 sharp and craggy against the skyline, now closer, 

 now further off, till, on nearing Bugungu, it has 

 disappeared altogether. The other bank rises in 

 quieter fashion, and not in such rugged leaps and 

 bounds as on the opposite side of the river, which 

 itself varies very little in breadth during the 

 twenty-five miles or so to the lake — about three 

 or four hundred yards being the maximum ; but 

 at its influx to Lake Albert it broadens out into 

 a marshy expanse covered with floating weeds, 

 until it loses itself in the vast area of this waste 

 of waters. 



Long before this the grand Congo mountains 

 on the further side of the lake have been very 

 much en Evidence, more especially one sugar-loaf 

 hill which shelters the Belgian station of Mahagi 

 at its base. 



Still continuing on our travels, which here 



43 



