188 A NATURALIST IN MID-AFRICA. 



colonise and bring up children. The work which 

 they would find necessary would most certainly be 

 far less severe than that of travellers under present 

 conditions. 



The Coffee zone begins again on the western 

 flanks of the Nandi hills. I think that in this 

 Victoria region the climate is very much more 

 trying than is generally supposed. Making all due 

 allowances for the discomforts and privations of 

 Europeans at present in this part, there are some 

 irreducible facts which go, I think, to prove that 

 it is not a country where Europeans should remain 

 for more than three or, at the most, five years at 

 a time. Nor would it be possible to do con- 

 tinuous manual work, though it is not likely that 

 this would ever be required of a European. It is 

 probably better than most parts of India, but the 

 presence of swamps, and the absence of horses, 

 makes a very great difference to the health and 

 comfort of those who would be obliged to remain 

 permanently in Uganda. Cases of haBinaturic fever 

 also occur. At present a very severe scourge 

 is the "jigger." Every morning at Kampala, a 

 long row of miserable beings, with toes in all 

 stages of ulceration, used to wait for treatment, 

 and though, with reasonable care and attention, it 

 can quite easily be avoided, there is no doubt that 

 this, amongst other things, shows poverty of the 

 blood and a bad state of health. 



On Ruwenzori itself the climate is a very pecu~ 



