i68 UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



From Kampala to Masindi takes twelve days' easy marching. 

 The first part of the journey through Bulamwezi is very pleasant, 

 but the last bit of the road before reaching Mruli is rather 

 hot and trying, over an uninteresting plain, with rank grass, 

 and scarcely any trees. The caravan route about midway 

 cuts through a forest belt. Here I saw some native elephant- 

 hunters in pursuit of an elephant. 



Mruli is the southern frontier station. Its position is assigned 

 wrongly in maps. It lies on the north or left bank of the Kafu 

 River, and not on the south or right bank. The river is almost 

 choked with papyrus opposite the station. The native popula- 

 tion consists of a few villages thinly populated. A few fields 

 are cultivated, but the river yields the principal supply of food. 

 Any amount of fish is caught by means of cleverly constructed 

 creels. The most common fish is a small species of perch ; 

 it has a delicate flavour, but is terribly packed with scores of 

 slender harpoon-shaped bones. A large herd of Government 

 cattle are kept at Mruli, because there are salt-licks close by the 

 river, and the cattle thrive remarkably well here. In the centre 

 of the small fort there is a large tree, under which the Effendi 

 had directed my tent to be pitched. Towards dusk all the 

 vultures in the neighbourhood came to this tree to roost, and 

 their unpleasant presence soon was made known by the drop, 

 drop, drop, on my fly-tent. We managed, with shouting and 

 throwing stones and sticks, to persuade the birds to select 

 another tree for the night. Not only are powder and shot too 

 valuable to be wasted on carrion birds, but the birds themselves 

 are most useful as Nature's scavengers. 



On a subsequent visit something else kept dropping from the 

 tree, — large prickly caterpillars. I collected some, but all except 

 two died. The two which underwent the chrysalis change I 

 took with me to Masindi. Six months later I was delighted one 

 day by the appearance of two magnificent large yellow moths 

 of the Saturniidae family, my Mruli caterpillar having dropped 

 its pupa sac and entered the imago stage of its existence. 



The distance from ]\Iruli to Masindi is usually done in two 

 marches, but it can be done in one day if the caravan does not 

 stop at the Katagrukwa River or " river-camp." 



A common sight at the entrance of F'ort Masindi, whenever 

 one of the chiefs comes on a visit to the officer in command, is 

 a crowd of Wanyoro. Most of them use a cow-hide as a cover- 



