22 UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



and where it is offered for sale, owing to the scarcity of any 

 other firewood, it is not very cheap. 



On the whole there is a good supply of firewood along the 

 caravan route, except at the Government stations, where it has 

 to be bought from the natives who bring it to the camp or to 

 the appointed market. Everywhere else the traveller, on pitch- 

 ing camp, sends a certain number of his porters to bring in fire- 

 wood. The men naturally gather only dry wood, fallen or dead 

 branches, and thus no harm is done to the bush or forest which 

 provides the caravan. The protecting fence for the cattle is 

 supplied by the thorn-bushes. Sometimes, as for instance near 

 the Kedong escarpment, one comes upon a dead forest. The 

 gaunt dead trees on the wind-swept height might form a fitting 

 background for one of Dore's illustrations of Dante's Inferno. 

 No doubt the constant grass-fires must do considerable injury 

 to bush and forest-belt, besides destroying all the young trees 

 endeavouring to struggle for their existence on the grass plains. 

 Grass-fires are not necessarily unmitigated evils, a good many 

 poisonous snakes and other vermin probably perish in the 

 flames. 



The general absence of palms, oi" somewhat rare occurrence 

 of them, along the caravan route is rather noticeable. The 

 cocoa-nut palms of Zanzibar and Mombasa, and along the 

 coast-line at Dar-es-Salaam, Kilwa, and Mozambique, form a 

 picturesque feature of the tropical landscape. 



When the traveller has left Mombasa and the coast, he will 

 not see another cocoa-nut palm for the next thousand miles 

 up-country ; but there are certain other kinds he is sure to 

 meet with. Some beautiful fan-palms can be seen at Fovira 

 in Unyoro. 



This stately tree grows to a considerable height. In some 

 parts of the world cheap fans are manufactured from its plaited 

 leaves ; but here, perhaps because of its rarity, it is not put 

 to any use. Every European with a love for the beauties 

 of Nature endeavours to protect such handsome trees from 

 wanton destruction at the hands of savages. The group de- 

 picted is near the fort, and on the road from Fovira to Fajao. 

 There is a sinister tragedy connected with it. I was told, 

 one of the Soudanese soldiers was censured by his superior 

 officer and took it so much to heart, that he shot himself at 

 the foot of these palms. 



