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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



a great emporium of trade on the Vic- 

 toria Nyanza. 



So far from leading to the extermina- 

 tion of the game, the railway has actually 

 come to the fore as a means of game 

 preservation. It is really amazing how 

 all the wild animals, except perhaps the 

 lion, have taken to the railway. The big 

 and small game soon realized the fact 

 that they were shot at less from the rail- 

 way line, and finally not at all, while on 

 the other hand the lions, and perhaps 

 leopards, were perturbed by the noise of 

 the train, and began to shun the line, for, 



as regards shooting, exceptions were nat- 

 urally made in their favor. However 

 strict have been the game regulations in 

 force for the protection of game along 

 the line, naturally no restriction has been 

 placed on the shooting of lions, leopards, 

 and hyenas. Whether or not these de- 

 ductions are fanciful, the plain fact re- 

 mains to be testified to by any one who 

 now takes a journey on the Uganda Rail- 

 way that from the window of his car- 

 riage he can see as the train crosses cer- 

 tain tracts positive zoological gardens let 

 loose. 



AMID THE SNOW PEAKS OF THE 

 EQUATOR* 



A Naturalist's Explorations Around Ruwenzori, with 

 an Excursion to the Congo State, and an 

 Account of the Terrible Scourge 

 of Sleeping Sickness 



By A. F. R. Wollaston 



AFRICA is a land of surprises at 

 every turn, so one is not in the 

 L least astonished to find lying 

 alongside of the quay at Port Florence, 

 the end of the Uganda Railway, a per- 

 fect little ocean steamship. The white 

 paint and the glistening brass-work, the 

 electric light, and the Indian cook made 

 me think that this was a P. and O. liner 

 eastward-bound rather than a little 

 steamer on a remote lake which fifty 

 years ago no white man had even seen. 

 After the grime of the Deutsch Ost 

 Afrika and the discomfort of the Uganda 

 Railway, this was luxury indeed. 



The voyage across the lake to Entebbe 

 is not in any way interesting. For a 

 short time the ship is out of sight of 

 land, but generally the north shore is in 



sight, or some of the innumerable islands 

 that lie along the coast. A few seagulls 

 and cormorants, the only birds that I 

 saw, made it hard to believe that this was 

 not the sea. 



RAVAGES OF SLEEPING SICKNESS 



One of the most interesting things to 

 be seen in Entebbe at that time was the 

 laboratory of the Royal Commission on 

 Sleeping Sickness, under the charge of 

 Lieutenants Gray and Tulloch, R. A. 

 M. C, where the disease was being stud- 

 ied with a view to discovering its nature 

 and, if possible, some means of treat- 

 ment. Close at hand was the native hos- 

 pital, filled with miserable wretches in 

 various stages of the disease. It is sad 

 to have to record that, though a great 



*Abstracted from "From Ruwenzori to the Congo," by A. F. R. Wollaston. John 

 Murray, London, 1909. 



