CHAP. X THE GIANT GROUNDSELS 171 



they could now use the water ; but as soon as my back was 

 turned they poured it away, and refilled their pots from an 

 adjoining brook. 



We moved camp next day to a drier and more protected 

 situation, where we left the invalids. My tent was carried to a 

 point 1700 feet higher up. We had to march for some time 

 across a peat bog, over which we made fair progress, until the 

 crust thawed ; after this wc were for most of the time plunged 

 to the waist in half-frozen peat. Dragging the loads through 

 this was terribly fatiguing ; and a depressing sleet, which some- 

 times passed into rain and sometimes into snow, added to our 

 discomfort and obscured the view. After escaping from the 

 bog, we reached the crest of a ridge. We found there a 

 sheltered nook amid some crags of agglomerate, at a place 

 where a grove of giant groundsels and tree lobelias supplied 

 abundant firewood. The men begged that we might go no 

 farther, and I was only too willing to grant their request. 

 They put up the tent, and then, all but my cook, my personal 

 attendant, Fundi, and a porter who was too weak to return, 

 went back to the lower camp. 



From this point I made a series of excursions to work out 

 the topography and geology of the ridges of the mountain. 



In order that the account of the excursions among the 

 central peaks of Kenya may be understood, it is necessary to 

 give a short sketch of the topography of this part of the moun- 

 tain, and of the nomenclature of its peaks, valleys, and lakes. 

 For more detailed information reference must be given to the 

 descriptions in the GeograpJiical Journal and Quarterly Journal 

 of the Geological Society.^ As it is impossible to describe the 

 mountain without names, some have had to be invented. I 

 should not, of course, think of applying European terms to 

 places for which native names are already in existence ; but 

 in a locality where there are no names, there can be no reason- 

 able objection to proposing them. 



Several names are obvious. The valley in which Telcki 

 built his boma, and reached his highest point, it is natural to 

 call the Teleki Valley. The name of this courageous Hungarian 



^ J. W. Gregory, "Contributions to the Physical Geography of British East Africa," 

 Geog. Journ. vol. iv. pp. 413-421 ; "The Glacial Geology of Mount Kenya," Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. i. pp. 515-530. 



