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Show tlie north of Lake Albert, and there seems no reason why they should not extend their wanderings into the Congo forests, although so far observation tends to show that these herds find their way back again, as a rule, to the countries east of the Nile. Hippopotami are not very numerous in the Victoria Nyanza near the mouth of the Kagera. The locality .does not seem very well suited to them. In the Kagera River itself there are more, and parts of the river are infested by a number of very savage brutes that make navigation in canoes or small boats extremely dangerous. Lt. Weiss, of the German Commission, was repeatedly attacked when in a very large canoe. He was almost upset-one man was dragged out by the arm, but escaped. Finally his crew refused to go on and ran away with their paddles. The actual number of hippopotami cannot be considered large in comparison with the huge herds in the Nile north of Lake Albert. Probably in the great swamps of the Kagera, considerably to the south of the area traversed by the Boundary Commission, the hippopotami are much more numerous. The specimens secured in the Kagera were decidedly inferior in size and in development of ivory to those of the Nile. Rhinoceroses are extremely numerous 011 the right bank of the Kagera, especially in Karagwe. The number of these animals is quite remarkable, and, according to accounts received, they are to be met with in even greater numbers a little further south. It is a curious fact that no rhinoceroses are to be found on the left bank of the Kagera. All those seen belonged to the common black African type. Stories were current of the existence of the White Rhinoceros on the right bank of the Kagera, but these rumours require confirmation. The rhinoceroses appear to have 110 hesitation in frequenting the extremely steep and difficult hills of Karagwe. Their tracks and signs were seen up and down hills and on ridges which appeared more adapted to the habits of klipspringers or goats than of such bulky animals as rhinoceroses. In the virgin forest west of the lake near the mouth of the Kagera, in the swampy and open forest east of Koki, and in the Busenyi forest west of the Gambaizi group of hills, several herds of Buffaloes are to be found. These buffaloes are of a very interesting, new, large variety. They are, perhaps, the largest buffaloes in existence. In all, in the district referred to, there may be 400 or 500 buffaloes, and as their numbers are not likely to be interfered with, except by men armed with rifles, they may be considered to be firmly established again after the devastation caused by the great cattle-plague of some ten years back. 1 In Bukanga the buffaloes wander in search of young grass, after the fires, as far as the hills of Ankole and Koki, from the forests which form their strongholds. There is one disadvantage, however, connected with the presence of the Buffaloes, of the Eland, and perhaps of other Antelopes. This is the tsetse-fly, and it is to be feared that as long as large herds of buffaloes and the greater antelopes exist, so long will the tsetse-fly make it 1 9 0 5 .] HISTORY OF THE UGANDA ANGLO-GERMAN BOUNDARY. 1 8 5 |
