Lake Victoria to Khartoum 



bullock, as he was, to stand it for long, no matter 

 how energetic or how much exercise he takes. 

 Here we dropped Mr. Boyle, who had been 

 very seedy ; Mr. Knox and my escort remained 

 here as well, as there was no place for them in 

 the already overcrowded boats. They would 

 have a nice little trek back through little-known 

 country to head - quarters, mapping as they 

 went. 



The first part of the journey on the water was 

 down the river, now flowing between high papy- 

 rus walls, now running out into a broad lagoon 

 overspread with water lilies and other aquatic 

 plants ; we passed multitudes of duck, and an 

 occasional pelican paddling sleepily about on the 

 look out for his meal of fish. After some two or 

 three hours we left Pegi hill on our right and 

 reached Lake Kioga, the entrance to which is 

 blocked with masses of weeds and floating blocks 

 of papyrus and reeds, detached by the force of the 

 wind and current. These had accumulated to such 

 an extent as to become a veritable nuisance. We 

 had to stop the launch every two hours or so in 

 order to disentangle the bunches of weeds from 

 the propeller ; this would revolve more and more 

 slowly, until, with the aid of a boat-hook and the 

 reversal of the engines, a large lump of weeds 

 would be detached and left behind floating astern, 

 often causing great inconvenience by getting 

 itself tied up with the tow rope, and extracting 



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