126 THE SEMLIKI VALLEY 



stay there for perhaps a month on our way round to 

 the west side of Ruwenzori, but means and men, 

 provisions and permission to travel, had tarried by 

 the way, and it wanted but a few days of three 

 months before we eventually quitted the place. A 

 few matches applied to the grass walls of our houses 

 completed the work of the white ants, which had 

 devoured all but the merest shell of the supporting 

 framework of poles, and in five minutes there was 

 nothing to bear witness to our long occupation of 

 the camp. Instead of following the level but very 

 roundabout route, which we had taken before by 

 Kikarongo and Katwe, we struck almost due west- 

 ward across the hills, the southern outliers of 

 Ruwenzori, which separate the plains of Ruisamba 

 from those about the Semliki Valley. From the 

 summit of the hills a very striking and, at the same 

 time, instructive view was seen of Lake Ruisamba, 

 and of its connexion with the Albert Edward 

 Nyanza. For some reason best known to them- 

 selves, the people, who at different times have made 

 maps of this region, have represented Ruisamba as 

 merely a great backwater of Lake Albert Edward, 

 connected with the north-east corner of the latter 

 lake by a short but narrow strait. As a matter of fact, 

 Ruisamba is nothing of the kind, but a totally distinct 

 lake, whose waters flow into Lake Albert Edward 

 by a large river some ten miles long, which winds 

 at first through a flat marshy country and afterwards 

 between steep and rugged banks. Another curious 



