E. B. WOOSNAM — ITINEEAET. 7 



of being driven through the water at a great pace by a well-trained crew. Canoes of 

 a similar pattern are often used on Lake Edward, but not on the Congo Kiver, where 

 they are all of the " dug-out " type. 



In the neighbourhood of Entebbe, the absence of ducks on Victoria Nyanza was 

 remarkable, and all the herons, egrets, cormorants, and other water-birds were always 

 to be seen perched upon trees : possibly the presence of numbers of crocodiles may 

 account for this. 



Professor Minchin, F.Z.S., kindly allowed the members of the expedition to visit the 

 laboratory of the Sleeping Sickness Commission, where investigations of great interest 

 and of vast importance to Uganda were being carried out. 



Before leaving Entebbe, the discovery was made, at the eleventh hour, that 

 Euwenzori and all the country about the foot of the mountains was a " game-reserve," 

 in which no shooting of any kind was permitted, but, after application had been made 

 to the Commissioner of the Uganda Protectorate, special permission to collect was 

 granted to the members of the Expedition. 



In arranging the caravan for the march from Entebbe to Ruwenzori, much valuable 

 help was given by the Collector, Mr. J. Martin, and the Assistant Collector, 

 Major TrefFry. 



When, at last, all preparations were complete, a start was made from Entebbe on 

 November the 23rd, and Fort Portal, the Government post near the western border of 

 the Uganda Protectorate, was reached on December the 13th. From there a march 

 of four days brought us to the small village of Bihunga, where the first base-camp 

 was formed at an altitude of about 6500 feet, in the valley of the Mubuku Kiver, along 

 which lies the only known route to the snows on the eastern side of Euwenzori. 



The march from Entebbe is extremely uninteresting and monotonous. The country 

 is undulating, almost hilly in places, covered with dense elephant-grass from 12 to 14 

 feet high and broken stretches of shorter spear-grass intermixed with mimosa bushes. 

 Here and there great masses of granite-like rock protrude on the crests of the ridges 

 where rain has washed away the soil. Guinea-fowls were sometimes to be seen on 

 these rocky ridges, but usually succeeded in baffling their pursuers by escaping into 

 the thick grass. Francolins were often heard calling in the evenings, but without 

 a dog there was little chance of flushing them. The bottoms of the valleys were 

 swampy and more thickly wooded with dark-leaved trees, or sometimes, in the larger 

 valleys, there was a broad expanse of waving papyrus-swamp, but the road was 

 generally shut in on both sides by the tall elephant-grass, which effectually excludes 

 all view of the surrounding country. The march from Entebbe took longer than was 

 anticipated, owing to the caravan being rather long and hampered by several awkward 

 loads : with a small caravan the distance of about 170 miles to Fort Portal can be 

 traversed in ten days. Porters are the only, but are not an ideal, means of transport ; 

 if the number is over 80 or 40 they are a continual source of trouble to feed, and 

 are becoming more expensive and more difficult to obtain every year. 



