124 



THE WESTERN PROVINCE 



with a temperate climate, good pasture, and not many trees.* South- 

 eastern Ankole is of rather low level, and approximates in character to 

 average East Africa, with a marked dry season alternating with the wet, 

 and a tendency to parched vegetation and absence of luxuriant forests. 

 The scenery in the north-west of Ankole is of quite exceptional beauty, 

 containing a number of large broken-down craters of extinct volcanoes 



that are filled with fresh-water lakes ranging in size from one mile in 

 area to a surface of over twenty square miles. The remains of the crater 

 walls rise above these clear, still lakes into hills and mountains, and 

 their reflections cover most of the lake surface. The vegetation along the 



* In that corner of the Protectorate, in the country of Mpororo, which borders 

 on the Mfumbiro volcanoes (three of which are active), the whole ground, according 

 to Lieutenant Mundy, is covered Avith lava. It is very rough ground to travel 

 over, as the lava is broken into large blocks and small fragments. 



