A MOUNTAIN ASCENT. 153 a westerly direction, and the traveller is on the frontiers of Lendu, which country has not hitherto been visited by Europeans. From Jabakot, very high mountains are visible to the west; to the north lies another mountain chain, which is said to belong to Lubari. The direction of all the xhors in the country just described is easterly. Luri is spoken everywhere, but another language is said to exist to the west.

An ascent of the mountains directly behind the station ‘Mahagi led to no good result. The foreground is, at the most, a mile and a half broad, and consists of a very rich red or coffee-brown vegetable mould, which might have been made on purpose for crops. Here and there pieces of granite,* blackened by weather, and blocks of mica appear. When we © left the station at 6.30 A.M., the aneroid read 27.60 in. at a temperature of 75° Fahr. The ascent is extremely steep, and is rendered more difficult by numerous fragments of stone and long grass, where the foot is apt to slip; here and there we had a pretty glimpse of the lake, which was unfortunately covered, as usual, by a veil of mist. Along the verge of deep ravines, with water rushing along below us, we gained the top, after a hard climb; but only a plateau studded with many little domes was visible, shut in to the west by the Nyelea group, and to the south by the imposing heights of the Eruku. To the north the mountain ridge extended in an unbroken line. The small single elevations are usually separated from one another by deep ravines. High grass and very sparsely scattered trees, generally butter-trees (Butyrospermum) and tamarinds, grow on the hills and in the hollows, rich vegetation only abounding where there is water. Numerous fox-coloured baboons were barking among clumps of trees, the deserted durrah fields supplying them with plenty of food. We passed two smaller peaks (aneroid, 26.97 and 26.89 in.), and then climbed the higher summit (aneroid, 26.78 in., temp. in shade 83.3 Fahr.), but it did not afford any view. The prevailing rock is a light grey, very fine-grained granite, upon which layers of mica often lie, quite in accordance with the general * Gneiss should probably be read instead of granite in most cases, for, to the -best of my knowledge, no typical granite has yet been found among mineral specimens brought from the farthest part of the upper Nile territory.—G. 8.