Lake Victoria to Khartoum 



being apparently the high road for all the villages 

 in this part of the world, in that it seems to pass 

 through most of them. At any rate, at the end 

 of the day's march we had been going a long 

 time and felt fairly tired, but we did not seem to 

 have got very much " forrarder," judging by the 

 bearings of the various landmarks, but we had 

 descended from the rather hio^her pfround three or 

 four miles eastward of the Nile to where the Uma 

 river runs into it. Here I spent two quite good 

 sporting days waiting for news of elephant, which, 

 alas ! never came. I managed to secure a nice 

 hippo on the first day, and saw him cut up and 

 safely in camp, which was satisfactory, as so 

 many drift down the rapids and get lost. The 

 morning after two oribi and a good waterbuck 

 with a 33-inch head were bagged. 



The country on the Uganda side of the river 

 was inhabited years ago by a race of men who 

 lived in square stone houses and cultivated the 

 land largely, judging by remains of their gardens, 

 which were built for miles along the slope 

 looking over the river, and in all the steeper 

 parts formed terraces like the hill cultivation in 

 India. The chiefs in these parts are very nice, 

 hospitable old men, kinder than ever when they 

 are stimulated with thoughts of hippo meat ! 



The mountains on either hand now began to 

 draw nearer to each other, till it looked as though 

 to pass between them would be impossible. The 



186 



