From Entebbe to Fort Portal. 



The word grass, by the way, is hardly ap})r(»priate to a 

 growth which, while reaching a height of from 10 to 20 feet, 

 is at the same time so dense as to make it practically impossible 

 to deviate from the path, and offers far more analogy to a huge 

 bed of reeds than to a meadow. It is called " elephant grass," 

 and is indeed a ^^astnre appropriate to such a herd. From 

 time to time the elephant grass makes way for herbaceous 

 vegetation on a more modest scale, not more than three feet 

 high, and dotted with innumerable flowers. 



PLANTAIN GROVES. 



The natives are in the habit of setting fire to the grasses- 

 during the dry season. Possibly the vast fires thus kindled, and 

 which spread especially on the heights where the earth is dry 

 and where the wind fans the flames, destroy the young trees, 

 and so hinder the formation of forests except in the sheltered 

 valleys beside running water. The fact is that, as a rule, the 

 trees which stand here and there among the tall grasses, and 

 give the country the characteristic look of a jjark, are all of 



73 



