THE REGION OF FORESTS. 403 ‘sponding character, But all the Mammalia we have mentioned are found again here except zebras, which appear to be totally absent; ostriches also are frequent, at any rate to the west in the Jangé (Dinka) country, while in the eastern division of the region in question they are rarities, no doubt because the country is swampy and densely populated in its dry parts. The distribution of the ostrich, therefore, is regulated by the line of demarcation between steppe and forest, and this applies also to the Manis Temminckit. Both are absent in Uganda, Unyoro, Kalika, Monbuttu, Makraka, and the countries of the Jur and Bongo, as well as in Dar-Fertit, while they are common in the adjacent Dinka countries, in Latuka, and in the whole of the Shuli and Lango districts. The same is true -of the giraffe.

Ascending from the plain, we leave the steppe and come next to the real forest region, into which, however, the steppe often intrudes, generally in long ribbon or wedge shaped strips. Probably the largest part of our territory is covered with brushwood (open and generally low woods), where, however, tall trees are not altogether wanting. But it is seldom that dense woods of one kind of tree are seen, and it is the absence of these which makes our woods seem open and straggling, at any rate in the eyes of a northerner. JReal forest, closely packed woodlands, where a man may roam for hours and days together without being reached by a ray of sunlight or feeling a single drop of rain, extend into our territory only on the south and west, and correspond completely with the reports of Livingstone and Stanley concerning the south and its impenetrable forests. A connecting-link, as it were, between these two kinds of forest is formed by the belts of wood along the margins of watercourses, in which all the vigour and splendour of tropical vegetation are displayed.

It is apparently strange that, the farther we advance westwards the farther do these belts extend northwards, so that, for instance, while in the east the Victoria Nile seems to be their northern limit, and they are consequently restricted to Uganda and Unyoro, they are found again in the west of Makraka, that is, more than two degrees farther to the north. This apparent anomaly may be explained by the-fact that the main lines of de-