64 ON THE UGANDA ROAD part ii 



Golbanti at the time of my first visit there. His residence 

 on the Tana had shattered his health, and he had been 

 dangerously ill since I met him ; he had, therefore, been trans- 

 ferred to this station, as it was supposed to be healthy. Both 

 he and his colleague, however, still suffered a good deal from 

 fever. He took my temperature and said it was io6° F., and 

 therefore kindly tried to persuade me to rest for a day or two. 

 The fear of my men deserting if allowed to stop so near 

 Mombasa weighed far more heavily on my mind than did my 

 temperature ; so I felt compelled to go on. I tried in vain to 

 buy a donkey, but the missionaries kindly lent me one for a 

 couple of days. 



Early next morning, after a sleepless night, I was lifted on 

 to the donkey, and followed the caravan, which had already 

 started. The road ran for some distance along a turf-clad 

 ridge which commanded splendid views to the south and west. 

 The prospect to the south was especially fine, as it included the 

 broad estuary of Port Reitz, with the rounded hills of Shimba 

 at its head. Thanks to the rain, the grass was green and the 

 whole country looked fresh and luxuriant. The rocks in this 

 district are much older than those lower at the shore, in which 

 occur the ammonites. They here consist of coarse-bedded sand- 

 stone and grits with layers of pebbles ; the series appears to 

 have been formed as a shore deposit on the slopes of the old 

 gneiss plateau that extends inland. I did not see any fossils, 

 but I could not hunt properly for them ; there were some 

 promising-looking shaley layers, which it was hard indeed to 

 pass unsearched. 



After leaving Mazeras we saw no more villages or signs of 

 cultivation, and entered the great barren " Nyika " (see chap, 

 xii. p. 223), inhabited hereabout only by some few families of 

 Wa-duruma. After a march of six miles we reached a small 

 stream bed, a series of holes filled with yellowish-green and 

 filthy stagnant water. I was too ill to go farther, so we 

 camped. Half an hour later Edmonds arrived to go on with 

 us for a couple of days and bring back the donkey. It was a 

 good thing he came, for I was delirious all the afternoon, and 

 even in the lucid intervals could not read the labels on my 

 medicine bottles. Next day we made a better march of ten 

 miles through a drenching downpour of rain. The fever had 



