236 A NATURALIST IN MID-AFRICA. 



days' journey from the Albert Edward Nyanza, and 

 one could obtain as much labour as would be 

 required by utilising the salt from the Salt lake 

 in payment. 



The road leaves the mountains at Seribombo's, 

 and enters the Rufue valley. This river is said 

 by the natives to enter the Albert Edward Nyanza, 

 a point of very great importance, since a short 

 day's march over two or three rolling hills, none 

 of which are more than three hundred feet above 

 the Kagera plain, leads to a stream, the Kaki- 

 tombo, which falls into the Kagera just below 

 Latoma. It follows, therefore, that there should 

 be a very easy road to the Albert Edward Nyanza 

 from this point, probably not more than 60 to 

 70 miles long. 



This river, Kakitombo, is about 15 yards wide 

 and 2 feet deep, and has a small belt of forest on 

 its banks. The Kagera itself is about 40 yards 

 wide, very deep, and has a moderately swift 

 current (two miles per hour). The belt of papyrus 

 is about 80 yards wide on either side, and the 

 water is, as usual, full of hippopotami. We crossed 

 in six canoes, each of which was capable of carry- 

 ing a man and two loads at a time. These were 

 formed of two small dug-outs lashed together. The 

 banks of the river are very steep, nearly 40 feet 

 above the water. The river is curiously similar 

 throughout the whole of its course, from Bugufu 

 to Kitangule and Musonje. 



