A NATURALIST’S RAMBLE. 65 is, notwithstanding his “ pedigree,” only an usurper and parvenu. a One day I took a walk along a path towards the south, ‘ which led me along the foot of mountains of considerable height lying to the left, whilst those on the right were about two miles away. At the bottom of the valley Khor Kydi flows at first towards the south and then to the west. High grass interwoven with creepers abounds. A large ocymum mingles its odours with that of several Cruciferee(?). Here, as in so many places, there are open woods of fig-trees and mimosas, as well as Combreteze, and conspicuous among them is a lofty tree with beautiful yellow sweet-smelling flowers and a foliage resembling that of a mongolia. Taking it all in all, the vege-© tation in North Unyoro is rather monotonous, with the exception of those places where runnels of water produce, as if by magic, small floral Edens. This, notwithstanding the opposite opinion of Baker, is probably due to the fact that the soil in Unyoro, at least in its northern part, is not so rich as that in Uganda. On the other hand, it must be remembered that the custom of annually burning the grass does not give the vegetation a fair chance of developing. What trunks exist are distorted and knotty. Only on the mountain slopes, to which the fire seldom reaches, and along the hors do we find splendid pillar-like trunks. I have already, in former letters, called attention to the beauty of such oases of vegetation.

After I had wandered for an hour, I found that the mountains to the right suddenly turned towards the west and opened up an extensive view across a rolling prairie, beyond which, in the far south, the rounded outlines of isolated mountains rose into view. Behind me and on either hand, the view was shut out by high mountains. I could only see the dark green line of the khor winding its way between the greyish-red grass. In every fold of the ground the presence of inhabitants is indicated by columns of smoke. ‘Threatening rain-clouds warned me to return home quickly, but they were soon driven away by a fresh east wind. ‘The rainstorms here always occur with south or south-east winds. There was abundance of rain during the whole of my stay in Unydro. I never experienced ‘a day without rain, and it often rained three or four times in E