CLOSING INCIDENTS. A07 



cle could induce it to deviate from its straight direction. The ups and downs 

 were terribly steep, and in some places white ants had erected solid fortresses 

 in the center of the highway. 



After passing Haima, the pretty capitol of Unyoro, the ups and downs of 

 the road increased in severity as they approached Lake Albert, and terminated 

 in a final precipitous descent. 



At Butiaba, where the American expedition approached the lake, arriv- 

 ing there Januarj' 7, it is surrounded by a low level plain, two or three miles 

 wide, from which rise cliffs about 1,500 feet high. The soil was impreg- 

 nated with salt, and supported but little vegetation. 



Butiaba is by no means a town, for it consists of only three or four sheds 

 and a pier, and has no inhabitants of any kind. The hunting party found 

 a steam launch, which had in tow two steel boats for their equipment, waiting 

 for them at the pier, to take them across the northern end of Lake Albert 

 and up the Bar-el-Jebel river. They left Butiaba at 10 o'clock in the 

 morning and arrived at Koba at 1 1 150 P. M. Forty minutes later the jour- 

 ney was continued to Wadelai and thence to Rhino camp, which was reached 

 at daybreak. It is located on the Congo side of the Bar-el-Jebel river. 

 The distance from Butiaba to Wadelai is y2 miles and was covered in a re- 

 markably short time. 



All the way they passed through schools of hippopotami who rose to 

 the surface round the launch, which they treated with supreme indifference. 

 Everywhere there was a display of water-birds as remarkable in its way as 

 the antelope and zebras on the Athi or Kapiti plains. Some ran about on the 

 flat leaves of the water-lily, while some chattered in the trees along the river, 

 where they had constructed whole cities of bottle-shaped nests, and many stood 

 on one leg contemplating the scene with that grave calmness, which is so char- 

 acteristic of the family of cranes and storks. The Bar-el Jebel or Upper 

 Nile, along which our hunters were now passing, has no banks, and it is very 

 hard to say where the water ends and the land begins, for a carpet of vegeta- 

 tion and flowers spreads from the land over the edge of the river, while the 

 river overflows the land and creates a shallow marsh a few inches deep. All 

 this renders landing very uncomfortable, but the effect on the eye is pleas- 

 ant. The water is softly opalescent, particularly in evening lights, and the 

 double line of mountains affords a good frame for the landscape, while the 

 velvety carpet of vegetation, which borders the sides and backwaters, is re- 

 deemed from monotony by beautiful white and blue lilies, and occasional 



