Mt. Elgon (q.v.), a vast crater, the rim of which rises to over 14,000 ft., and its surrounding heights form a mountain country notable for innumerable cascades and dense forests. Elgon dom inates a large area and can be seen from the north-east coast of Victoria Nyanza, from near the main Nile stream, from the heights overlooking Lake Rudolf and from Kikuyu escarpment. The East ern province consists of well-forested, undulating land (Busoga) on the coast of the lake, a vast extent of marsh round the lake like backwaters of the Victoria Nile (Lakes Kioga or Ibrahim, Kwania, etc), and a more stony, open, grain growing country (Bukedi, Lobor, Karamojo). The Turkana country west of Lake Rudolf is now arid, and most of the rivers have ceased to show running water in their lower courses. A good deal of high land— rising in some peaks to near ro,000 ft.—is found iri the eastern part of the Northern province, and these heights attract moisture and nourish permanent streams flowing Nilewards. But much of the lower ground is stony and poor in vegetation, while the low land near the main Nile is exceedingly marshy.
The Ripon falls in the centre of the northern coast of the Victoria Nyanza, at the head of the exquisitely beautiful Napo leon gulf, mark the exit of the fully born Nile from the great lake. The Victoria Nile tumbles over 5o m. of cascades and rapids (descending some 700 ft. in that distance) between Ripon falls and Kakoge. Here it broadens into Lake Kioga (Ibrahim), in real ity a vast backwater of the Nile, and continues navigable (save for sudd obstacles at times) through Lake Kioga and thence northwards for roo m. to Foweira and Karuma falls. Between Karuma and Murchison falls the Victoria Nile is unnavigable. At Fajao the navigation can be resumed into Lake Albert. The main Nile stream, when it quits Lake Albert, continues navigable as far north as Nimule 40' N.). Navigability begins again roo m. lower down at Rejaf, from which point steamers ply to Khartoum (see NILE).
The topography of the Western province includes the eastern part of Lake Edward, Lake George, the eastern and northern shores of Albert Nyanza (q.v.), part of the great snowy range of Ruwenzori (q.v.), the dense Semliki, Budonga, Mpanga and Bunyaraguru forests, the salt lakes and salt springs of Bunyoro and western Toro, the innumerable and singularly beautiful crater lakes of Toro and Ankole, part of the volcanic region of Mfum biro (q.v.) and the healthy plateaux of Ankole. The water of Lake Victoria is perfectly fresh. In Lakes Albert and Edward the water ranges from salt to slightly brackish.
Koki rocks consisting of granular quartzite, schistose sandstone, red and brown sandstone, and shales with cleaved killas rest on the Archaean platform. Clay rocks of very varying texture and appearance occur over a wide area in Buganda, the western prov ince, and the south part of the northern province. The Nile, at the Ripon falls, leaps over a basalt dike. The rocks on the verge of the Kisumu province of Kenya Colony are mainly volcanic (basalt, tuff, lava, kenyte). Thick beds of crystalline limestone occur in the Eastern province, with sandstone in Musoga, basalt round Mt. Elgon, slate (Busoga) and iron stone (Busoga and Bukedi). In the Rudolf province there are the basalt, lava, tuff and kenyte of the volcanic Rift valley, overlying a formation of gran ite, gneiss, and quartz. Gneiss, granite and quartz—the decom posed granite giving the red "African" clay—are the leading fea tures in the formation of the Northern province, of Buganda, and of the Western province, with some sandstone in the littoral dis tricts of Buganda and in Ankole, and eruptive rocks and lava in south-western Ankole and on the eastern flanks of Ruwenzori. Laterite is a surface deposit of wide occurrence, and iron ore (haematite) is abundant. Deposits of Karroo age have been found at Entebbe and elsewhere. It may be added that there is abundant evidence of man's presence in Uganda in the Palaeolithic and Neolithic ages.
Flora.—The vegetation is luxuriant, except in the Rudolf re gion, which has the sparse flora of Somaliland. In the Western province, Busoga and the Elgon district, the flora is very West African in character. The swampy regions of the Nile and of the Eastern province are characterized by an extravagant growth of papyrus and other rushes, of reeds and coarse grass. There are luxuriant tropical forests in the coast region of Buganda, in Bu soga, west Elgon, western Unyoro, eastern Toro, the central Sem liki valley and north-west Ankole. The upper regions of Mt. El gon, Mt. Debasien and Mt. Agoro are clothed with forests of conifers—juniper and yew—and witch hazels (Trichocladus). There are also giant yew-trees (Podocarpus) on the flanks of Ruwenzori and the Mfumbiro volcanoes between 7,000 and 9,000 ft., but no junipers. The alpine vegetation on all these lofty mountains is of a mixed Cape and Abyssinian character—witch hazels, senecios, lobelias, kniphofias, everlasting flowers, tree heaths and hypericums. The really tropical vegetation of Buganda is nearly identical with that of West Africa.