144 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

of description may, roughly speaking, be divided into the coast portion and the interior portion. Along the shore of the Nyanza, and for some distance inland, the country is mountainous, especially at the extreme north-west corner of the Lake, where ranges of flat-topped hills occur, intersected by deep swampy valleys. Down these valleys sluggish streams make their way to the Nyanza, their beds choked by dense masses of reeds, papyrus, and grass ; while their sides are clothed with magnificent forest and a rich undergrowth of ferns, of which I collected some fifty species ; long rope-like creepers hang from every tree ; troops of grey monkeys swing from bough to bough, and make the woods ring with their discordant shrieks ; flocks of large grey parrots fly screaming about ; delicate little honey-birds, their plumage glowing in the sun like living rubies or emeralds, hover over the bright-coloured flowers on the forest's edge, and in the open glades countless butterflies, of all the hues of the rainbow, flit about. As the traveller gets farther from the Lake the valleys widen, the hills lessen, the forest trees are gradually supplanted by the wild date palm, and rank grasses take the place of the ferns. Near the northern boundary the hills, with one or two exceptions, disappear, and the country becomes a plain intersected at long intervals by huge rush drains, and covered with open forest or jungle, where the eland and other