FROM RUWENZORI TO 

 THE CONGO 



CHAPTER I 



ENGLAND TO EAST AFRICA 



' Over the great windy waters, and over the clear-crested 

 summits, 

 Unto the sun and the sky, and unto the perfecter earth, 

 Come, let us go ' Clough. 



The forest and mountain regions of Western Uganda 

 and the eastern districts of the Congo Free State 

 have long been an unknown land and difficult of 

 approach, but the few accounts that had been given 

 by travellers, and the remarkable birds and beasts 

 that they had brought back with them, excited the 

 curiosity of naturalists — not least among them the 

 authorities of the Natural History Museum at 

 South Kensington. The discovery by Sir Harry 

 Johnston of the okapi and other interesting forms 

 in the Semliki Valley, and the numerous new species 

 of birds obtained by Mr. F. J. Jackson's collector 

 in the unexplored range of Ruwenzori, pointed to 

 that district as being the most likely to produce 



I 



