FUGA. 



211 



clay ; the same ' Sliolas,' black forest patches 

 clothing the slopes; the same emerald swamps 

 through which transparent runnels continually 

 trickled, and little torrents and rocky linns. Here, 

 howeyer, we find a contrast of aspects : the !N'orth- 

 ern and Eastern slopes are bluff and barren, whilst 

 the Southern and Western teem with luxuriant 

 yegetation. The reeking and well-irrigated plains 

 to the TTest are well wooded, and we were shown 

 the water of Masindi, a long narrow tank, upon 

 whose banks elephants, they say, abound, i^. 

 Westward the mountains are apparently higher 

 and steeper, and about 10 miles farther West the 

 giant flanks of Makumbara, whose head was cap- 

 ped with cloud-heaps, bound our prospect. We 

 now stood about 4000 feet aboye sea leyel ; 37 di- 

 rect miles from the coast, and 74 to 75 along the 

 winding riyer. 



After another three-mile walk alonsr the flanks 



o 



of domed hills, and crossing a shallow burn which 

 seemed to freeze our parched feet, we turned a 

 corner and suddenly sighted, upon the summit of 

 a grassy cone opposite, an imfenced heap of hay- 

 cock huts, a cluster of bee-hiyes with concentric 

 rings — Puga. As we drew near, our Baloch 

 formed up and fired a yoUey, which brought out 

 of the settlement the hind and his wife, and his 



