140 
DOWN THE VICTORIA NILE 
breadth of deep, clear water, nearly a third of a mile wide, and flowing 
calmly onward, free from the turmoil of the rapids through which it 
has tossed and tumbled for the first forty miles of its course. 
Here, at the native village of Kakindu, we first take to the river 
and float smoothly and easily down its course until Lake Chioga is 
reached and we glide over the limpid expanse of that inland waterway. 
This lake is about fifty miles long from east to west, and eleven broad, 
its area being much extended by a series of long arms, which stretch 
far out and yield access to wide surrounding districts. All these arms 
and much of the lake itself are half choked with reeds, grass and water 
lilies, while the Nile, as it nears the lake, broadens into wide lagoons, 
high walls of the papyrus reed bordering them and hiding the sur¬ 
rounding country. 
On the lake the voyager can usually count on a depth of about 
twelve feet, but floating weeds and water plants much impede naviga¬ 
tion, while in times of storm floating islands of mud and papyrus are 
often detached and float about, puzzling the pilot by blocking up the 
channels familiar to him. One thing in especial must be done, t’he 
voyager must avoid the northern and particularly the northwestern 
shore, for here dwell wild and hostile tribes which have never been 
brought under control. Though this region forms part of the protec¬ 
torate, its people acknowledge no masters and are ever ready to attack 
interlopers with their spears, or their muskets, when they have them. 
Now, without following the Nile step by step throughout its 
course, let us make a leap forward to its greatest cataract, the 
Murchison Falls. On leaving Lake Chioga it spreads to a broad 
stream of more than a mile in width, flowing between walls of solid 
papyrus and dotted with floating islands of plant formation. After 
a considerable length of level stream we reach Karuma Falls and 
the rapids again set in, ending, about forty miles further down, in the 
great cataract above mentioned. 
If we seek it through the jungle-like Hoima forest, it is to find 
ourselves in such a wilderness of vegetation as is seldom seen. The 
forests of Uganda in general are, for magnificence of tree growth, for 
varied form and color, for profusion of life, for the vast scale on which 
nature’s processes work, almost unequalled; and the fecundity of 
