THE REGION OF FORESTS. 403 



sponding character. But all the Mammalia we have mentioned 

 are found again here except zebras, which appear to be totally 

 absent ; ostriches also are frequent, at any rate to the west in 

 the Jange (Dinka) country, while in the eastern division of 

 the region in question they are rarities, no doubt because the 

 country is swampy and densely populated in its dry parts. 

 The distribution of the ostrich, therefore, is regulated by the 

 line of demarcation between steppe and forest, and this applies 

 also to the Manis Temminckii. Both are absent in Uganda, 

 Unyoro, Kalika, Monbuttu, Makraka, and the countries of 

 the Jur and Bongo, as well as in Dar-Fertit, while they are 

 common in the adjacent Dinka countries, in Latiika, and in 

 the whole of the Skuli and Lango districts. The same is true 

 of the giraffe. 



Ascending from the plain, we leave the steppe and come 

 next to the real forest region, into which, however, the steppe 

 often intrudes, generally in long ribbon or wedge shaped strips. 

 Probably the largest part of our territory is covered with 

 brushwood (open and generally low woods), where, however, 

 tall trees are not altogether wanting. But it is seldom that 

 dense woods of one kind of tree are seen, and it is the absence 

 of these which makes our woods seem open and straggling, at 

 any rate in the eyes of a northerner. Real forest, closely 

 packed woodlands, where a man may roam for hours and days 

 together without being reached by a ray of sunlight or feeling 

 a single drop of rain, extend into our territory only on the 

 south and west, and correspond completely with the reports of 

 Livingstone and Stanley concerning the south and its impene- 

 trable forests. A connecting-link, as it were, between these 

 two kinds of forest is formed by the belts of wood along the 

 margins of watercourses, in which all the vigour and splendour 

 of tropical vegetation are displayed. 



It is apparently strange that, the farther we advance west- 

 wards the farther do these belts extend northwards, so that, for 

 instance, while in the east the Victoria Nile seems to be their 

 northern limit, and they are consequently restricted to Uganda 

 and Unyoro, they are found again in the west of Makraka, that 

 is, more than two degrees farther to the north. This apparent 

 anomaly may be explained by the fact that the main lines of de- 



