72 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

march to the Nile over the mountains was very difficult, but most beautiful. The Ellengoa and Kuku Mountains rose to 1200 feet above the river on the left, and Grebel Illner to 400 feet on the right.

Our road lay close under the mountains for many miles, the country being open forest with tall grasses. We crossed numerous ravines with streams of water flowing down them, sometimes beautifully clear, but more often muddy from the recent rains. These khors were many of them very beautiful. Fine forest-trees overhung their steep sides, while the water foamed over its stony bed, or fell in showers of spray from picturesque crags. High over our heads, for many hundreds of feet, towered the long range of mountains, peak rising beyond peak in apparently endless succession, while now and then the roar of a distant rapid on the Nile was distinctly audible. Gradually, however, the scene changed ; masses of mist gathered round the mountain-peaks, and clouds soon began to roll down their steep sides into the valleys, and heavy rain came on.

This continued for some time, but we held on our way, halting only for a short rest under a magnificent tamarind-tree. Shortly after resuming the march, the rain ceased, and the sun began to make itself felt from behind a thin veil of clouds. Then leaving the mountains, we turned eastward, and in a few minutes came in sight of the Nile. It was no longer, however, the placid mile-wide stream we