7 



EASTERN ETHIOPIA vi 



tufts of elephant grass made us fancy that we were 

 passing through the Palm house at Kew. Suddenly 

 the road traversed a stretch of equatorial forest filled 

 with large trees, in all stages of growth and decay, 

 supporting parasitic trailing plants and lianas. Some 

 of the trees thoroughly invested by thin, pendant, 

 trailing plants resembled a confirmation girl in nun's 

 veiling. 



These thick groves and corners of forests contain a 

 great variety of birds, and as they flew from one grove 

 to another I was able to recognise some of them. Not 

 the least remarkable were the huge black and white 

 hornbills ; these birds seemed to think it a hardship 

 that they should be expected to fly. The bee-eaters, 

 sun -birds, parrots, and rollers filled the scene with life, 

 glory, and beauty. In some of the forest patches 

 monkeys are seen in troops, especially the colobus, 

 playing among the trees or sunning themselves in the 

 tops of dead trees, or sliding down the lianas and 

 landolphias like children in a gymnasium. 



As we emerged from the forest, palms, bananas, sweet 

 potatoes, and rubber trees again came into view with 

 native huts built of mud and thatched with grass : 

 black-skinned children gnawing at bananas or a piece 

 of sugar-cane watched the passage of the car. We rode 

 up and down the hills of this switchback road until we 

 caught a glimpse of the Uganda Cathedral on the top 

 of Namirembe hill, and in a short time we entered 

 Kampala. It was a beautiful approach to a remarkable 

 town. 



When we visit Rome with its almost continuous 

 lines of houses and well-kept streets we do not notice 

 the inconvenience of ascending and descending the 

 slopes of one or other of its seven hills, when we pass 

 from part of the town to another. In Kampala the 

 isolation of the various institutions from one another in 

 consequence of being perched on a hill is inconvenient, 

 especially as the only means of conveyance is the 



