122 TRADE AND COMMERCE. 



request in Uganda, where a high price is given for it. The 

 salt, which is occasionally imported from Uzinza, owing to the 

 distance and its consequently higher price, cannot compete 

 with that from Unyoro. The latter is usually of a dark grey 

 colour and mixed with dust, but possessing a pure salt taste, 

 and analysis proves it to be almost unadulterated chloride of 

 sodium. In contrast to all other goods, salt, with very rare 

 exceptions, is sold in Uganda for cash only, that is to say, for 

 cowries. The price of the large packets varies with the 

 quantity that happens to be in the market, although in small 

 packets it is retailed at an almost constant rate. Besides salt, 

 small quantities of fairly pure soda are occasionally brought 

 from Uzinza ; it is in great request as a remedy for colic and 

 indigestion, notwithstanding its horrid taste, and is sold in 

 diminutive packets for ten to twenty cowries. 



I must here once more refer to iron, of which a very excel- 

 lent quality is manufactured in all parts of Uganda and Unyoro, 

 the iron of the former country being softer than that of the 

 latter. It is sometimes obtained from bog iron ore in low- 

 lying lands, but usually from clay ironstone resembling roe or 

 kidneys in its formation, and lying upon the granite. In 

 certain places this ironstone proves extraordinarily rich, e.g., 

 on the mountains round Kisiiga, in Unyoro. The iron need 

 not fear comparison with good European kinds. 



The plastic clays of the country are most excellent, and are 

 used in the manufacture of pottery, which is as durable as it 

 is elegant, and sold everywhere in these countries at a ridicu- 

 lously low price. Unlike other tribes, the potters among the 

 northern Bantu are always men, and they manufacture small 

 vessels for milk and for water — the exceptionally large gourd- 

 bottles are preferred to pitchers for large quantities of all 

 kinds of liquids — and their fancy finds free scope in the 

 manufacture of pipe-bowls of the most varied forms, which, in 

 neatness of execution and originality of design, leave nothing 

 to be desired. They are also uncommonly cheap, and are well 

 suited for export. 



Besides coffee, these countries yield much fine and excellent 

 produce in resins, fruits, and woods, although no one has hitherto 

 thought of turning them to account. Amongst these must be 



