CHAP. X THE ALPINE MEADOWS 169 



loads and basked in the sunshine, while I examined the sections 

 in the stream banks, and collected the flowers on the meadows. 

 Many of these were old friends. There were clover and black- 

 berry, dandelions and bitter -cress {Cardamine, sp.) Some 

 silvery gray bushes about 6 feet in height, which clothed the 

 hillside, proved to be an arborescent form of that most typical 

 of Alpine meadow plants, the Lady's Mantle {Alchemilla). 

 These plants were associated with others, such as the gladiolus, 

 -*vvhich I knew only in gardens, and others, such as a tree-lobelia, 

 which were of a type quite new to me. I also caught some 

 specimens of a common English butterfly, the Clouded Yellow 

 {Colzas edusa, Linn.) 



An hour passed all too quickly, and then some rising 

 clouds warned us to hasten on to camp. Immediately 

 after we had started we surprised, and were surprised by, a 

 small antelope (a bush-buck). It made no effort to run away, 

 but stood and watched us, until a bullet from Omari's Snider 

 cut up the ground beside it. The path cutting had so unsteadied 

 my hand, that I preferred to leave the responsibility of the shot 

 to some one else. 



Above us rose a steep wall of rock, up the face of which 

 ran an elephant path. While scrambling up this the storm 

 broke upon us, and my men were alarmed by the appearance 

 of hail and sleet. Fortunately some of them had seen hail in 

 Kavirondo, and on the summit of Mau, and they were therefore 

 not as much startled by the sleet as they might otherwise have 

 been. 



The men faced the storm most pluckily, but as we ascended 

 the slope it became much more severe, and I went on ahead to 

 select a place for camp. I was recalled by a signal-shot, and 

 found that the porters had collapsed on a half- frozen peat 

 swamp. They were crouching under the lee of boulders and 

 bushes for shelter from the driving sleet. A few of the stoutest 

 put up the tents, and I went on again to find a better place 

 for the permanent camp, as I intended to leave the men here 

 while I went higher up the mountain. On my return I found 

 that one of the porters had not come in. The Askari, who 

 were responsible for his safety, as it was their duty to sec that 

 no one lagged behind, and my plucky headman had all tried 

 to go back to the rescue, but had been unable to face the 



