238 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

formed a waving sea of foliage of every shade of green ; beyond stretched the blue waters of the Nyariza for many miles, the southern horizon being bounded by the purple hills of Uzinja, while far away on the south-east the summits of two islets of the Kome group were just discernible. The roar of the surf on the rocky shore raised by the morning's storm reached the ear as a faint murmur, the air was filled with the song of birds and the musical hum of countless insects, and occasionally a white-headed eagle startled the echoes with its harsh cry.

Next day, seven and a half hours' good pulling, brought us to the Kome group, a cluster of some twenty islands in the south-west corner of the Nyanza. They are of different sizes, and most of them uninhabited, the people who formerly lived there having been almost annihilated by the Waganda. One of the smallest of these islands is a great breeding-place of the water-fowl which frequent the Lake ; it was covered with low bushes, which were filled with the nests of cranes, darters, ibis, and other birds, while on the ground ducks, geese, kingfishers, etc., laid their eggs. When I was there the young birds were mostly about to leave the nest, and the uproar made by the vast flocks of old birds hovering about and the cries of the fledglings for food was perfectly deafening, and could be heard at a great distance. Our canoemen landed and secured a large number of the young darters,