138 



THE WESTERN PROVINCE 



of many kinds, that I 

 have s\voo[)ed with my 

 net at an unoffending 

 shrub to secure nothing 

 but a battered flower, or 

 I have passed without 

 molesting a bush from 

 which at my approach 

 all the white and yellow 

 lilossoms flew away. 



A good deal of 

 Southern Toro is unin- 

 habited, or at least has 

 but very few inhabitants, 

 and there is therefore a n 

 absence of banana groves 

 and of cultivated fields, 

 so that the country has 

 a wild aspect. This also 

 means that there is a 

 good deal of game — 

 elephants, various ante- 

 lopes, possibly a lew 

 buffalo lins^ering still, 

 and lions. In this part 

 of the district, where one 

 has descended to the 

 Albertine depression and the altitude is not much over 3,000 feet, the 

 Borassus, or fan palm, appears. Elsewhere this handsome tree is absent 

 from the Uganda Protectorate, except in Unyoro and in some of the 

 countries bordering the !N'ile. This may partly be accounted for by the 

 high altitude that characterises such a large proportion of this territory. 

 After the abundance of Borassus palms in Nyasaland, East Africa, and 

 the less forested regions of the Congo, the Niger, and tlie interior of 

 the west coast, its absence in Uganda strikes the European who has seen 

 other parts of Africa as unusual. 



Eastern and Central Toro are }ierfectly delightful countries, especially 

 in the sub-district of Mwengi. The road winds round enormous grass- 

 covered hills of beautiful outline and bracing climate. The scenery is 

 exactly like that of the Cheviots, with the difference, of course, that the 

 actual trees belong to tropical species, and that the flowers only offer 

 superficial resemblances. The grass is not really short, but its surface is 



112. A MOUNTAIN STREAM (THE RUIMl) 



