Page:The empire and the century.djvu/822

 thickness, which hang down in fantastic loops and festoons, and make progress extremely difficult. In these sanctuaries large herds of elephants wander at will, and in almost complete security. Their remoter strongholds are the home of the chimpanzee and many rare species of monkeys.

In some of the valleys the bamboo grows in luxuriance, but more often than not the hollows separating the ridges are filled with papyrus swamp, through which a sluggish stream slowly filters.

In the vicinity of Lake Albert Edward these ridges rise into a succession of mountain ranges, some of the higher peaks attaining a height of nearly 9,000 feet above the sea. At such altitudes the air is fresh and bracing, while the views are magnificent and of great extent. The slopes of the lower hills resemble terraced gardens, so profusely are they strewn with wild flowers. Like most plants in Uganda, these flowers are of large size, and in order to top the grass and reach the sunlight their stalks attain a height of several feet The effect of these varied masses of colour is extremely pleasing, and the traveller is reminded of Swiss mountain scenery when the 'alpen rosen' and the gentians are in bloom. Thick clumps of tall forest trees fill the valleys, and in these shady retreats brightly plumaged birds of many species are to be met with.

As the escarpment of the rift is approached the character of the landscape changes completely. The trees, the flowers, and the birds disappear, and a barren expanse, or table-land, of lava, interspersed by black and jagged rocks, extends to the very summit of the cliffs. The scene here is a remarkable one. The surface of the plateau is seamed by the inverted cones of extinct craters, many hundred feet in depth, close to one another, and frequently separated only by a ridge a few yards in width at the top. The simile of a gigantic honeycomb, of which the cones form the cells and the ridges the dividing walls, is irresistibly suggested. The sides of these craters are very steep, and, in almost every case.