254 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

opposite Mkongo, and including Bumbire, Maiga, and Lubili, extends to the south-west corner of the Lake. Alice Island stands practically alone, rising in solitary grandeur to a height of many hundred feet above the Lake, far away from land.

Off the coast of Uzinja we find the well-wooded, fertile Kome group, most of its members being uninhabited. Then, along the southern side are scattered at long intervals rocky, deserted, and almost inaccessible islands, till we come to Ukerewe, the largest of all the islands of the Victoria Lake.

It is really a peninsula or promontory, running far out into the water and connected with the land by a low swampy neck, through which are one or two narrow channels. North 'of this is Ukara, and then the Nyanza seems to be almost devoid of islands till we reach Uvuma, off the coast of Usoga, and the scene of many a bloody battle between its brave inhabitants and the Waganda.

There are one or two currents in the Lake which deserve a passing mention. The most important is a strong westerly current, which sets across the entrance to Jordan's Nullah towards the coast of Uzinja. Its speed, as far as I can judge, is about a knot and a half an hour. I first noticed it in my voyage to Kagei in the Daisy in January 1877, when, there being no wind, my men had hard work to make way against it with their oars. I also noticed it again in August of that same year, when