228 THROUGH UNKNOWN AFRICAN COUNTRIES. 
After a great deal of trouble I managed to get my men 
once more started on the way to the lake, leaving behind 
five boys to take care of Aden and the guide. A great 
deal of the meal had been spilled, and a good part of the 
remainder I left with the wounded fellows, so that now we 
should have to depend almost entirely on the game I shot. 
The way was very rough, but before dark we had gained 
the high plateau lands, over five thousand feet above the 
level of the sea, or three thousand feet above the valley of 
the Galana. There were no paths whatever except those 
made by rhinos, and at times we had to pull ourselves 
over high rocks. During the whole march I led the way, 
carrying my .577; but I only saw two more rhinos far off 
in a valley. 
I had been assured by the Amara that we should reach 
the lake before noon the next day; but after plodding our 
way for hours over marshy plateaus that reminded me 
much of the fjelds of Norway, across deep ravines and up 
and down mountain peaks, we found ourselves at eleven 
o'clock in the morning on an eminence from which I could 
see the lake far distant to the north. “ Phe porters ‘here 
cast down their loads and seemed to think the journey was 
ended. They had imagined that I had come to see the 
lake only from a distant mountain-top. They told me that 
Prince Ruspoli had ascended a mountain on the Konso 
range without going nearly so far as we then were, and had 
been satisfied with simply taking their word for it as to the 
position of the lake. I was obliged now literally to shove 
the porters along, and hard work it was getting down the 
mountain side over rough loose rocks hidden in wet grass 
up to one’s waist. 
We were slipping at every turn; but finally, after a couple 
of hours, we reached the marshy plain, through which a 
small brook flowed into the lake. We camped at six in 
