44 TRAVELLING IN UGANDA 



all, in the space of two days. On another occasion 

 I was travelling for a short distance with seven 

 porters ; one evening, about nine o'clock, there 

 arrived food for thirty porters, but by five o'clock 

 the next morning there was not a scrap remaining, 

 and my precious seven did a long and very hot day's 

 march without being any the worse for it. 



Throughout the greater part of the country the 

 scenery is not very striking. One mile is very much 

 like another, great papyrus swamps alternating with 

 low hills covered with scrubby trees and tall elephant- 

 grass. Along the principal roads of Uganda the 

 papyrus swamps have been bridged, or, rather, cause- 

 ways have been driven across them, so that one has 

 no longer to plunge up to the neck in the morass, 

 and spend, perhaps, a whole day in going half a 

 mile, with the loss of many loads. Under the cause- 

 way are culverts, through which the clear black 

 water runs into a deep pool below, where white and 

 blue water-lilies grow in the shadow of the tall 

 papyrus. In very dry seasons the natives set fire 

 to the swamps, and a more dreary sight than a mile 

 of burnt and charred papyrus stalks, with a glimpse 

 of black mud and water at the roots, and here and 

 there a blackened palm-tree, can hardly be imagined. 



Over the hills that separate one swamp from 

 another the road goes, like a Roman road, straight 

 ahead, no matter how steep it may be. In Uganda 

 the roads are usually wide, as wide as a country lane 

 in England, but owing to the native habit of always 



