Ill THE VICTORIA NYANZA 31 
that he ha(J to steer the vessel with great care, and with 
some difficulty among them. 
These rush islands are pretty objects, and serve to 
variegate the surface of the lake. The shallow parts of 
the bays are also occupied by that troublesome plant 
^ Pistia stratiotes, which is one of the constituents of the 
sudd. The important elements of the sudd are papyrus 
rushes, reeds, feathery grass and occasionally ambatch. 
These are woven together by creeping plants of the 
convolvulus order. Near the level of the water the 
stems of the reeds and rushes are cemented together by 
aquatic plants of which Pistia is the most conspicuous : 
it is like a lettuce and has thick, pleated, succulent 
leaves. The plant throws out rhizomes along the surface 
of the water which in their turn bud, and the buds also 
throw out rhizomes. On the lake, and the upper reaches 
of the White Nile, Pistia is a common object quietly 
floating down-stream. 
The Victoria Nyanza may be regarded as a huge 
reservoir with one outlet, the Ripon Falls. Its chief 
affiuent on the west is the Kagera river, and the Nzoia 
on the east. 
This enormous lake is visited by electrical storms of 
extraordinary violence. I had heard a great deal about 
these electric displays, and had the good fortune to 
witness one from the deck of a steamer. The night was 
very dark, and the sky became illuminated by almost 
persistent streams of yellow and blue electric light. 
The eflect could only be described as horrible. When 
the steamer occupied the vortex of the storm, it 
seemed as if the lightning hissed as it rushed into the 
water of the lake. Whilst these streams of electric 
fluid were coursing downwards from the sky, the clouds 
were suffused by broad cascades and streams of light¬ 
ning resembling the aurora borealis. The instantaneous 
crashes of thunder following on the electric discharges 
resembled the detonations of huge shells or 100-ton 
guns. These storms are very common, and destroy the 
