November lo, 1892 J 



NATURE 



45 



dog's hair to their chiefs' staffs. One of those peculiar cords 

 was a very remarkable one ; it was a small cord, bound closely 

 round throughout its whole length with a much smaller one 

 (something like the silver or fourth string of a violin). I never 

 saw this kind but once, and that was at the East Cape, in 1838. 

 A specimen of it I shall now exhibit. This cord was used for 

 a single and particular purpose, attached to the small under- 

 aprons of girls — ch'efs' daughters. 



Their larger cords and ropes were composed of several 

 strands, well twisted and put together. Besides their round 

 ropes so made, they had also flat ones of various widths, which 

 were plaited or woven, resembling our webs and bands, and 

 much used as shoulder-straps in carrying back-loads ; also 

 double-twisted ropes, and three-strand ones ; likewise a remark- 

 ably strong one that was four-sided. This was made of the un- 

 scraped leaves of the cabbage-tree, that had been gathered, and 

 carefully wilted in the shade, and then soaked in water to make 

 them pliant. It was used for their anchors, and other heavy 

 canoe and house requirements. The leaves of the flax would 

 not be suitable for this purpose. I have had all those different 

 kinds of cords and ropes made for me in former years, but I 

 much fear the art of making them is lost. 



There were also their nets for catching fish and for other 

 purposes, with their meshes of various dimensions. Their 

 smaller c^ies (hand nets) were made of all manner of shapes and 

 sizes. Some of them were dexterously stretched over circular 

 skeleton framework. And their large seine-nets, used for catch- 

 ing mackerel and other summer fish that swam in shoals, were 

 very long and very strong, made of the leaves of flax, split and 

 prepared, but not scraped, and completely fitted up with floats, 

 and sinkers, and ropes, and otherneedful appurtenances. Cook, 

 who. was astonished at their length, has written much in praise 

 of them. I make one strikinjj quotation : "When we showed 

 the natives our seine, which is such as the King's ships are 

 generally furnished with, they laughed at it, and in triumph 

 produced their own, which was indeed of an enormous size, and 

 made of a kind of grass [/"/i^r/w/ww] which is very strong. It 

 was five fathoms deep, and by the room it took up could not be 

 less than three or four hundred fathoms long."^ (Voyages, vol. 

 ii., first voyage, pp. 369, 370.) 



In residing at Dannevirke, in the Forty-mile Bush district, 

 during several months, I have often noticed the Maoris from 

 neighbouring villages coming to the stores there to purchase 

 tether and other ropes and lines (large and small) for their use 

 with their horses, ploughs, carts, pigs, &c., while on their own 

 lands and close to them the flax plants grew in abundance. 

 These Maoris had very little to occupy their time, and could 

 easily have made common lines and ropes for their own use if 

 they knew how to spin them as their fathers did, and also 

 possessed their forefathers' love of work. 



UGANDA. 



A T a special meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on 

 ^ the evening of November 3, Captain F. D. Lugard gave 

 an account of the geographical aspects of his work in Uganda. 

 The hall of the University of London was crowded, and although 

 the issue of extra tickets was suspended, a large number of 

 Fellows and their friends failed to get admittance. An excellent 

 hand-map, by Mr. Ravenstein, enabled the audience to follow 

 Captain Lugard's route. The first part of the paper was con- 

 cerned with the journey from Mombasa along the Sabakhi river, 

 an unnavigable stream, to Machako, the furthest station of the 

 I. B. E. A. Company at that time, the district passed through 

 being almost uninhabited, and supplies difficult to procure. 

 The greater part of the paper related to Uganda and the other 

 countries surrounding he Victoria Nyanza, where Captain 

 Lugard was in command for two years. On the Kavirondo 

 plateau, east of the lake, there is a promising field for European 

 colonization. The plateau is crossed by the Equator, but at ele- 

 vations of from 7000 to 8cxx> feet the climate is cool and 

 exhilarating. It is possible, judging from experience in other 



' An interesting historical tragic story of the cleverly-planned taking and 

 death of a large number of Maoris in one of these seine-nets, together with 

 the fish (illustrating what Cook has written of their immense siz;), anl of 

 the deadly warfare that followed, is given in the Transactions N.Z. Insti- 

 tute vol. xiii., p. 43. 



NO. 1202, VOL. 47] 



places, that highlands close lo the Equator are healthier for 

 Europeans than those of similar mean climate lying nearer the 

 tropics. Kavirondo is admirably adapted for grazing, and 

 ranches similar to those of the west of America might be tried. 

 From the pasture lands of this plateau the transition to the rich 

 plantations of bananas and casava of Usoga and Uganda is very 

 marked, and the unclothed natives of Kavirondo give place to 

 the comfortably-dressed Waganda, a warlike people, but skilful 

 in all the arts of peace. 



Uganda is a land of low hills and valleys. The hills 

 are of red marl, or marl-gravel, and shale, generally covered 

 with pasture grass of a kind apparently peculiar to these 

 countries. The valleys are generally of rich black soil, and most 

 frequently the lowest part of the dip is a river swamp. The 

 swamp varies from a few score of yards to a mile or more in 

 breadth, usually being from half to three-quarters of a mile. 

 There is a slight trickling current — but very slight ; the river is 

 choked with dense papyrus, with an undergrowth of marsh ferns, 

 grass, reeds, &c. The water is usually the colour of coffee, and 

 red with iron rust. Most of these swamps are of treacherous 

 quagmire without bottom ; and unless the roots of the papyrus 

 form a sufficient foothold it is necessary to cut down reeds and 

 boughs of trees to effect a crossing. It is a singular 

 characteristic of these countries that, spite of their altitude 

 and hilly character, rushing water is rarely, almost never, to be 

 ;een. Thus Uganda has a mean elevation of some 4200 feet, 

 and borders the trough of the Victoria Nyanza at 3700 feet 

 only, and is a country full of hills and valleys. Kitagwenda, at 

 about the same altitude, borders the Albert Edward Lake at 

 3300 feet. Unyoro, with more lofty hills and peaks of granite, 

 with an altitude gradually increasing in the south, as you near 

 the Albert Lake, to some 5300 feet, similarly borders the trough 

 of the Albert, which has an elevation of only 2000 feet. \et 

 nowhere are these river swamps more frequent than here in 

 South Unyoro at the highest altitudes. The origin of the 

 water to supply the enormous Lake Victoria is an inter- 

 esting problem. Throughout the British sphere, on the 

 north and west of the lake, there is no single river, except 

 the Nzoia, which is worthy of the name flowing into the 

 Victoria. The Katonga — marked on the maps as a big river — 

 is merely a broad papyrus swamp. It is by no means so im- 

 portant a drainage as the Maiengo ; and all the endless river- 

 swamps (including the Marengo) send their sluggish streams 

 northwards to the Kafur and the Somerset Nile. The super- 

 ficial area of the Victoria being 27,000 square miles, crossed by 

 the Equator, and at an altitude of about 3800 feet, an 

 enormous amount of evaporation must occur, and yet spite of 

 this evaporation, there issues from its north-western corner the 

 magnificent Somerset Nile, a deep, broad, silent river. 



The close of the year 189 1 and the early part of 1892 were 

 exceptional in the matter of rainfall. Usually in this part of 

 Africa the lesser rains begin early in October and cease in the 

 middle of December. From that time the heat and drought 

 increase, and the grass dries up and is burnt, till in the beginning 

 of March the greater rains set in, and a tropical downpour con- 

 tinues with few breaks till the end of May. Last October and 

 November the lesser rains were unusually heavy, and continued 

 with little intermission till the time of the regular rains in March. 

 There was a little check, and then the rain continued up to the 

 middle of June and later. The result was, that the Lake Vic- 

 toria was some six feet perhaps above its ordinary level, and may 

 probably rise still higher. Unusual floods occurred in the Nile 

 in Egypt during September, this not bein;^ the time at which the 

 usual high Nile due to the Atbara floods occurs. 



Uganda is divided into ten provinces, and the ten chiefs who 

 rule these districts entirely drop their personal names, and are 

 called by the traditional title attached to those provinces. Of 

 these the four largest and most important have separate titles. 

 Thus, the chief of Chagwe is the Sekibobo ; of Singo, the 

 Mukwenda ; of Buddu, the Pokino ; and of Bulamwezi, the 

 Kangao. The remaining six are called by the title of their 

 province, viz. Kitnnzi, Katambala, Kasuju, Mugema, Kago, 

 and Kaima. Superior in rank to these ten governors 

 of provinces are the Katikiro (the vizier and chief 

 magistrate of Uganda), and the Kimbugwe. These two hold 

 innumerable estates, scattered throughout the country. 



In June, 1891, Captain Lugard left Uganda with the object 

 of coming in touch with the Soudanese refugees from the Equa- 

 torial Province, who had assembled at Kavalli's, on the south- 



