236 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

was the enormous quantities of spiders which it contained ; they were mostly a very large black species, beautifully marked with red and yellow ; their webs festooned every tree and bush, and one was obliged to stop every few yards to remove the masses of silky fibre from one's face. "While climbing along a ledge of rock I came upon several human skeletons lying in a heap. A few steps more revealed other skeletons, and a small cave close by was full of human skulls and bones ; judging from the appearance of the teeth and skulls, they were the remains of persons in the prime of life, but whether they had been killed in battle, or were the victims of some of those nameless deeds of blood of which Africa can tell so many, I cannot say.

Our camp was formed on the edge of the forest ; three or four large acacias with graceful pinnate leaves stretched their huge arms overhead ; in a semicircle facing the Lake were our huts of green boughs and grass ; fires were lighted before them on the sward, the blue smoke curling up into the calm evening air, and round them were gathered in picturesque groups the dusky forms of the canoemen. Flocks of ducks and geese flew by to their roosting-places, hawks and eagles hovered overhead, a solitary crocodile was lazily floating on the surface of the water, while the sun setting behind the purple hills of Uzougora left a broad track of bloodred light across the Lake.