250 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
The Alexandra Nile constitutes a natural boundary 
between the sovereignty of Uganda and its subject 
kingdoms of Karagwe and Uzongora, which begin south 
of the river. The plain of the Alexandra stretches 
south a few miles to an irregular line of grassy and 
treeless mountains, which are the characteristics of the 
fine pastoral countries of Uzongora and Karagwe. At 
Lupassi Point the mountains project steeply, almost 
cliff-like, into the lake, with heights varying from 200 
feet to 500 feet. The steep slopes bristle at many points 
with grey gneiss rocks — massy debris from the mountain 
brows. Near this point I discovered a stream which 
had a fall of three feet issuing from an orifice in a rocky 
cliff though above it there was not the faintest sign of 
a watercourse. In the gullies and clefts of the cliff-sides 
most beautiful ferns abounded. 
I managed to climb to the top of the bluffs, and to 
my surprise overlooked a plateau, with a grandly rolling 
surface, covered with pasture and almost treeless, except 
near the villages, where grew dense groves of bananas. 
Further west, however, the plateau heaves upwards into 
mountain masses of the same naked character. Looking 
towards the east, directly in front of North Uzongora, 
stretches an apparently illimitable silvery sea ; but 
towards the south one or two lofty islands are visible, 
situated about twenty-five miles from the mainland, 
serene and royal in their lone exclusiveness. 
The first village we halted at on the coast of Uzon- 
gora was Makongo. It nestles in a sheltered nook in a 
bay-like indentation of the lofty mountain wall crowded 
with banana groves and huts scattered under the im- 
penetrable shades — with a strip of grey gravel beach 
gently sloping from the water’s edge about forty feet 
upward to where it meets the prodigious luxury of the 
grove. There were about a dozen natives clad in dingy 
goat-skins seated on the beach, sucking the potent 
maramba from gourds when we came up, and without 
question we hauled our boat and two canoes high and 
dry. To our greetings the natives responded readily 
and civilly enough. With rather glazed eyes they 
