176 A SAIL UPON THE ALBERT LAKE. 



very little — are devoted to the extraction and preparation of 

 salt. This constitutes an important industry in Kibiro, which 

 supplies with salt not only all the northern parts of Unyoro as 

 far as Mruli, but also most districts of Uganda and the Liir 

 and Shiili countries. The salt deposits of Kibiro, therefore, 

 constitute one of the most valuable portions of Kabrega's 

 dominions. In the recent war between Uganda and Unyoro, 

 the Waganda, before their defeat, demanded a very large 

 quantity of salt (it is said iooo loads), together with a large 

 supply of ivory, as blackmail, to abstain from war. 



We paid a visit to the principal centre of the salt prepara- 

 tion, which lay only about ten minutes east of our anchorage. 

 Proceeding northwards along the lake shore, we could not help 

 noticing the artificial landing-places made by the native fisher- 

 men for the protection of their boats, by building up walls of 

 stone and carrying them a little distance into the shallow 

 lake. These stone walls are the favourite resting-places of 

 numbers of black-crested wagtails (Motacilla vidua), and occa- 

 sionally a grave meditative Scopus umbretta also takes up 

 his station there. A short distance farther on we crossed 

 the brook that comes from the hot springs ; its waters are 

 dammed up so that they only reach the lake by a thin trickling 

 stream; the wind and waves, in fact, often pile up the sand 

 across its mouth in such quantities as to close it up completely. 

 From this point the lake shore trends away in a wide curve ; 

 it is everywhere flat, and in certain places thick patches of 

 rushes were in full bloom. Here I secured a specimen of the 

 true western Hyphantica erythrops, one of the greatest rare- 

 ties in our own district. The strand vegetation is extremely 

 poor, consisting only of reeds, Aristida, Calotropis, Datura, 

 and Solanum. 



After passing the last settlement, we struck inland. Here 

 the ground rises in a couple of terrace-like steps, the edges of 

 which consist of clayey soil of a reddish colour, intermingled 

 with plant detritus and some snail-shells. These terraces, 

 therefore, are alluvial in character, the strand being now in 

 process of formation ; the upper terrace, the edge of which lies 

 thirty feet above the level of the lake, is, of course, the older, 

 and the lower owes its origin to the detritus washed down from 



