i64 TO LAKE ALBERT EDWARD 



looked like boundary marks, and the presence of a 

 large armed force in their country, naturally made 

 the natives think that their country had changed 

 hands, and we were regarded somewhat as intruders. 



The descent from the highlands of Ankole into 

 the basin of the Albert Edward Nyanza is as sudden 

 and as steep as is the Lake Albert escarpment 

 farther north. From a place called Kichwamba, the 

 last village in the hills, there is a superb view across 

 Lake Ruisamba to Ruwenzori, and of the whole 

 extent of Lake Albert Edward, with the Mfumbiro 

 volcanoes to the south. Near Kichwamba is a 

 series of small lakes filling extinct craters ; their 

 steep sides are covered, some with forest and some 

 with shambas, and the water of all of them is of 

 the deepest blue I have ever seen. In the branches 

 of quite a small tree which overhung the water 

 of one of the lakes was sitting a party of pelicans — 

 a habit of theirs which I do not remember having 

 seen elsewhere. 



Between the hills and the north-east end of the 

 Nyanza is a plain, about ten miles wide, of acacia 

 woods and long grass of great fertility, if one may 

 judge from the fatness of the great herds of cattle 

 which feed there. The plain is also the home of 

 great numbers of antelopes, especially water-buck, 

 which are remarkable, like the cattle, for the ex- 

 ceptional length of their horns. A specimen which 

 I shot there is pronounced by Mr. Rowland Ward 

 to be a ' record.' 



