32 UGANDA AND TEE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

side of the river, though it was impossible to secure any of them, as, owing to the remarkable tenacity of life for which these creatures are celebrated, they always managed to get into the water, and were swept away by the rapid current to the sea.

Leaving our camp, we kept for some distance along the banks of the Kingani, among noble forest trees, through large fields of sugarcane just ready to cut, and over treacherous black swamps. Then we crossed undulating ground covered with open jungle consisting of thorny acacias, candelabra, euphorbias, aloes and other tropical plants, till the village of Kekoka was reached. This was a straggling hamlet of a few huts scattered about a small clearing in the jungle. Large flocks of parrots and pigeons frequented the gardens, and as no meat was to be obtained here, I had resort to my gun, and in a couple of hours had bagged a sufficient number of pigeons to make several good meals.

Six marches from Kekoka in a W.N.W. direction brought us to the Pongwe hills. The country was for the most part open forest or jungle with grassy valleys at intervals, and now and then villages, which were generally surrounded by dense thorny hedges as a protection against enemies and wild beasts ; one of the prettiest of these villages being Eosako, two days from Kekoka. Streams were tolerably frequent, the water being sometimes brackish, and on their banks Indian corn, tobacco,