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Show 1903.] HIS JOURNEY TO UGANDA. 9 In one of these villages quite 10 per cent, of the natives had marked elephantiasis. They were very friendly, and provided me with whatever I wanted. After three days' wandering by winding paths from village to village, we came back to the main path by the side of the Nile, which for over sixty miles runs along close under a range of mountains on its western bank. From this point northwards for some time the beautiful little Parrot Palceornis docilis was common. The only Antelopes seen in this part of the journey were Cobus leucotis and a species of Dcimcdiscus. The grass seemed to get longer and longer, and marching in the early morning, when the heavy dew was hanging from every blade of grass in great drops, was most disagreeable. On September 19th we reached the flourishing village of a well-known chief named Adimadi. This village was situated in a hollow on the top of a high hill, with natural rocky fortifications surrounding it, and overlooking a fertile valley to the east. On the heights above the village I saw considerable numbers of what appeared to be a large red Colobus-monkey, a specimen of which I failed to secure. Long-horned cattle were plentiful here, and are probably the same race as the long-horned cattle of Ankoli. On the hill-sides were numbers of very fine African mahogany-trees (Kaia) and springs of good water. In these trees were many kinds of Plantain-eaters and Rollers (Coracias caudatus). This was the first place during the whole journey that I met with any Rollers. The hitherto daily rainstorms were getting less frequent, and the dry-season was setting in. From here we marched through undulating park-like country with small trees, to a similar isolated group of hills, with the village of Leju nestling beneath. Here, again, were fine spreading trees, in which were numbers of beautiful glossy Starlings (Spreo superbus), and also the King of the Sparrows (Dinemelia dineinelia). Passing down from the Leju hills again, we marched through country of a rather barren nature, of rank grass and small acacias. The whole way the elephant-tracks were very numerous, and we came suddenly on a herd of twelve with two old tuskers among them. The country now became more and more barren, and on September 22nd we reached the hills again, opposite the Belgian station of Redjaf. Here I saw several birds I had not seen before, including Merops nubicus, Vinago waalia, Laniarius erythrogaster, and, I think, Lanius collurio, though it may have been a different species. At Gondokoro I sent back all my porters and Uganda servants, and after a few days' work fishing &c., I started northwards, on the Sudan Government steamer ‘ Abuklea,' for Khartoum, on September 27th. The first few days the steamer passes through firm banks, on which, notwithstanding the grass, we saw several water-buck and some buffalo. Many small villages line the banks, while several old Dervish forts are passed. |
