28 
EASTERN ETHIOPIA 
III 
grass-covered liill, when suddenly the Ripon Falls, or 
cascades of Jinja, come into view. The river at its 
origin divides Uganda on the west from Busoga on its 
east bank. Speke on his second journey (1863) saw the 
falls from the Uganda side ; tourists are conducted to 
them by a well-kept pathway on the east side. As we 
traversed the footway, humped cattle grazed amidst a 
dock of buff-backed herons, busy picking ticks from the 
backs of oxen. On reaching the falls we found the 
O 
rushing water carrying over large fish ; the natives 
were busy securing some of them with spears. The 
ferry, as in Speke’s time, runs across the gulf above the 
Bagrm docmac. The rushing deep green waters carry large fish ov^er 
the falls ; the natives who haunt the coves with their spear¬ 
like harpoons secure some of them. 
falls, but the crocodile and hippopotamus have retreated 
to the deep and silent pools a mile or so below, where 
the shores, thickly covered with trees, reeds, and rushes, 
are rendered dangerous by the dreaded tsetse-dy. 
The rocks and trees in the river immediately below 
the falls are crowded with herons, cormorants, and 
egrets. One of the most conspicuous birds around the 
lake and head-waters of the Nile is the Vociferous Sea- 
Eagle. This, the handsomest of all the sea-eagles with 
its white head, neck, breast and tail, but chestnut belly, 
looks superb perched alone on the top of a high tree and 
sometimes on a telegraph post for hours, occasionally 
