176 THE SNOWFIELDS AND GLACIERS OF KENYA part ii 



Next day I intended to begin the exploration of the 

 glaciers. I was especially anxious to measure their rate of 

 flow, for which purpose it was necessary to put up a line of 

 stakes across one of them. As it would not be fair to expect 

 any one to attempt snow-work in bare feet, I had brought up 

 a reserve pair of boots and leggings, which I tried to persuade 

 Fundi to wear. He put on the boots — under protest, but 

 absolutely refused to keep them on. As he also declined to 

 allow me to put nails into the soles of his feet (his hide would 

 probably have held them), I had sadly to reconcile myself to the 

 knowledge that whatever snow-work was necessary would have 

 to be done alone. Being anxious to start before daybreak, at 

 sunset we wrapped ourselves up in our blankets and lay down 

 on our improvised mattresses of Alchemilla bush. The snow- 

 storm, instead of stopping at its usual time, increased in severity, 

 and such a furious gale of wind swept down the valley, that I 

 thought several times the tent would be blown away. At 

 about two in the morning we were alarmed by the rush and 

 whistle of slipping snow ; with a crash the wall of turf and stone 

 we had built above the camp fell in upon the tent. The 

 doorway was blocked by snow and earth, but a desperate jerk 

 tore up the loosened tent-pegs, and we sprang out into the storm 

 to examine, as well as the blinding snowstorm would permit us, 

 the exact extent of the peril. The slip, however, had stopped, 

 though it had covered our tent ground, and buried the few 

 things and food we had with us. There was no danger, but 

 it was impossible to light a fire or repitch the tent in the 

 darkness and the storm, and there was nothing for it but 

 to jump about, wrapped up in our blankets, to keep ourselves 

 alive until the morning. The two Zanzibari suffered terribly, 

 which, as the thermometer marked 28° below freezing,^ 

 was not surprising. My boy Yussuf simply sobbed with the 

 cold. The more stolid Fundi, in answer to my exhortations 

 to cheer up, as the sun was coming, when we should all be 

 warm, only replied with his usual fatalism, " Yes, it will come,' 



1 It should be pointed out that this was not the proper air temperature. The ther- 

 mometer was simply slung on my ice axe, and not properly protected from the wind. 

 The instrument was an ordinary bath thermometer that had been given me by Mr. 

 Ainsworth, as none of my thermometers were graduated below 40° F. The instrument 

 was broken on the return journey, and so its inde.x error could not be verified. Meyer, 

 however, in the warm season recorded a temperature of 10.6^ F. , at an elevation of 14,200 

 feet, on Kilima Njaro [Ostafrikanische Glctscherfahrten, 1890, p. 165). 



