trees flourish on the summit o f the hills with
the same vigour as near the lake.
Westward o f the smooth, rolling, pastoral
country which characterizes the interior o f Usoga
and Uganda, we observe that the land has lost
its surface o f pasture grass, and its gently undulating
character, and heaves itself upwards
into many-headed hills o f rugged, abrupt forms,
and as we penetrate farther, these hills become
mountains o f a stupendous typ e , with sum mit^
which, except on a fine clear d a y , the naked
e y e cannot define. D e ep , deep v a lle y s , from
whose depths we hear the roar o f resounding
cataracts- and falls, sunder these lofty mountains.
Upon their lengthy slopes great masses o f glistening
white rock are seen half imbedded in debris,
where th ey have remained since th ey were severed
from the parent mountain which raises its
head so proudly into the s k y above.
Beyond this scene again we come to where
the land appears to have concentrated itself,
and fused all lesser mountains and hills into one
grand enormous mass, the height and size o f
which dwarfs all hitherto seen, and which, disdaining
vulgar observation, shrouds its head
with snow and g re y clouds.
Indeed, so gradual is the transition and change
in the aspect o f the land from Lake Victoria to
Beatrice G u lf that one may draw this one-hun-
dred-miles-wide belt into five divisions o f equal
breadth, and class them according to the limits
given above. L e t us imagine a railway constructed
to run from one lake to the other—
what scenes unrivalled for soft beauty, luxuriance,
fertility, and sublimity would be traversed!
Starting from the sea-like expanse o f the
Victoria L a k e , the traveller would be ushered
into the depths o f a tall forest, whose meeting
tops create eternal night, into leafy abysms,
where the gigantic sycamore, towering mvule,
and branchy gum strive with one another for
room, under whose shade wrestle with equal
ardour for mastery the less ambitious trees,
bushes, plants, f llianes, creepers, and palms. Out
of this he would emerge into broad d ay , with
its dazzling sunshine, and view an open rolling
country, smooth rounded hills, truncated cones,
and bits o f square browed plateaus, intersected
by broad grassy meads and valleys thickly
dotted with ant-hills overgrown with brushwood.
Few trees ard visible, and these, most lik e ly ,
the candelabra or the tamarisk, with a sprinkling
of acacia. A s some obstructing cone would be
passed, he would obtain glimpses o f wide prospects
o f hill, valley, mead, and plain, e asy swells
and hollows, grassy basins and gra s sy eminences,
the whole suffused with fervid vapour.
These scenes passed, he would find himself
Surrounded b y savage hills, where he would view
the primitive rock in huge, bare, round-backed