Ill 



THE PANORAMA 



WE left Mombasa at noon, and until dark ran 

 through a very rich country, abounding in luxuri- 

 ant tropical vegetation, with comparatively little culti- 

 vation in evidence. The frequent stops disclosed a 

 numerous native population, to whom the passing train 

 was a passing event. At stations the fruit-stands offered 

 watermelon, cocoanuts, pineapple, papaw, mangoes, ba- 

 nanas, all growing in sight of the train, all the tropical 

 fruits with which we were familiar, and many entirely 

 new to us and with which we did not experiment. 



The Uganda Railway runs triweekly trains from 

 Mombasa to Victoria Nyanza (triweekly has been thus 

 jocosely defined, "They run a train through one week 

 and try to get back the next"). Nairobi is about half- 

 way, three hundred and twenty-five miles, and enjoys 

 fifty-four hundred feet of altitude. In their sleepers 

 they furnish bare bunks, and you are expected to provide 

 towel, soap, and bedding, and be your own porter. It is 

 a narrow-gage road, and has ail the rigidity that goes 

 with steel ties. It was not necessary to call us at day- 

 break we had already quit our "downy couch" and 

 were all agog for a first view of the wild life. We were 

 in the game reservation, and for seven hours the fauna 



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