280 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

advantages, being healthy, and free from mosquitoes ; while food is very abundant, and the surrounding natives (the Shulis) are on the best possible terms with the garrison. The neighbourhood of Fatiko is a veritable botanist's paradise, the richness of its flora being unsurpassed by that of any district I have seen in Africa ; but unhappily I was debarred from collecting here, as owing to a bad leg, caused by a fall, I was laid up during the whole of my stay.

We left Fatiko on August 8th, the first night being spent in the jungle. The third day we crossed a considerable-sized stream called Khor Djeffi ; there had been heavy rain the previous evening, and the river, which was rising when we reached its banks, was almost impassable. I and some of my men got over, but the water rose so rapidly that half my escort was left on the other bank, and they were unable to cross till the following evening. On the 13th we came once more to the Xile, which we had left at Foweira, and crossed over to Dufli, a large military station. From Dufli we marched, through the glorious scenery of the eighth cataract, to Lahore, and thence to Mugi and Keri. An account of this part of the journey will be given in the second part of the book. At Keri we obtained a boat and rowed down the Nile to the beautiful island of Bedden, situated among tbe cataracts of the same name. Were we transhipped our baggage into another boat