gratifying to report that those who explore the less-known districts nearly always report the discovery of fine land in some unexpected place. Thus the Commission which has recently been delimitating the boundary between British and German territory report the existence of a new escarpment called Isowri, and excellent grass about eighty miles from Lake Victoria. The best-known districts, taking them in the order in which they lie along the Uganda Railway, are the Athi plains, Kikuyu, the Rift Valley, the Mau, and the Uasin Gishu plateau.
Perhaps there is no better and more practical way of giving the reader an idea of the country than to make an imaginary journey by the Uganda Railway from the Indian Ocean to Lake Victoria. In doing so I should say that I follow the time-table which was in force a year ago. The service of trains may have been altered and accelerated since then.
On leaving Mombasa, which is situated on an island fitting rather closely into an indentation of the coast, the railway crosses a long bridge, and reaching the mainland, at once begins to climb a somewhat steep ascent to Mazeras, about fifteen miles from the starting-point This first section of the line is also one of the most beautiful. The scenery is tropical; the hills are covered with groves of cocoanuts and bananas, and from their summits are obtained wide views over the island of Mombasa and the many inlets round it—Port Reitz and Port Tudor, and the beautiful valley of the Mwachi River. Around Mazeras there is a good deal of cultivation, but shortly after it begins the least profitable and most uninteresting part of the journey—the Taru Jungle, a belt of forest and scrub nearly two hundred miles wide, which divides the highlands from the coast This jungle contains very little visible water, but the fact that it supports a thick vegetation, and that the land responds with a wonderful outburst of green and flowers to every shower, or the most rudimentary irrigation, indicates that the soil is rich and may some day be utilized. At
