REPTILES 289 



Two curious specimens of the " leathery " variety I saw 

 caught at Kibero by two Soudanese children fishing with line 

 and rod in Lake Albert. Instead of the usual hard carapace, 

 these tortoises had a soft flexible shell, hence the name 

 " leathery." They were brownish-black in colour, dotted all 

 over with green specks. They had a curious, pointed snout. 

 When placed flat on the back, they had the power to wriggle 

 themselves right again. I kept them alive for many months in 

 an earthen bowl filled with water. I hoped to have brought 

 them with me to London, but owing to unforeseen circum- 

 stances they had to be left at Kampala. 



Snakes. — When I first visited Central Africa and Lake 

 Nyassa, I used to carry some capsules containing ammonia in 

 my pocket, in anticipation of a snake-bite. I was agreeably 

 surprised to find how rarely one sees a snake, and I never 

 heard of any one being killed or even bitten by one. 



But, though far from common, one is forcibly reminded 

 every now and again in British East Africa and Uganda that 

 there are snakes about, and that they can and do kill human 

 beings. 



Most travellers have met the deadly puff-adder, the big 

 python, and the green, slender grass-snake. At least a dozen 

 other species have come at one time or another under my 

 notice. There was a conspicuously coloured yellow and red 

 snake which I killed near Kilungu on my third journey. A tiny 

 black snake with white spots, which I tried to intercept on the 

 caravan road at Kasokwa in Unyoro, turned and sprang at me ; 

 it was not much over a foot in length, and a blow with my stick 

 knocked it over dead. At Masindi we despatched two long grey 

 snakes which had taken up their quarters in the hospital dispen- 

 sary. When we cleared the ground for a new road leading 

 from the foot of Kampala hill in September 1894, several bluish- 

 grey and brown snakes were brought to light and destroyed, and 

 also a long black one which was discovered inside a white-ant 

 hill that was being levelled. I once saw a very long python 

 lying dead near the Nzoia river in Kavirondo. 



On my fourth journey, near Lake Nakuru, one of my porters 

 warned me just in time, as I approached a shrub on which 

 lay curled a young python four to five feet long. I blew its 

 head off with my shot-gun. On the west shore of Lake Albert 

 I fired from a dug-out canoe at some baboons, and a long 



