32 ON AN EAST AFRICAN RANCH [ch. ii 



in similar parts of our own West, can do well in East 

 Africa, \^'hile a man with money can undoubtedly do 

 very well indeed ; and incidentally both men will be 

 leading their lives under conditions peculiarly attractive 

 to a certain kind of spirit. It means hard work, of 

 course ; but success generally does imply hard work. 



The plains were generally covered only with the 

 thick grass on which the great herds of game fed ; here 

 and there small thorn-trees grew upon them, but usually 

 so small and scattered as to give no shelter or cover. 

 By the occasional watercourses the trees grew more 

 thickly, and also on the hills and in the valleys between. 

 Most of the trees were mimosas, or of similar kind, 

 usually thorny ; but there were giant cactus - like 

 euphorbias, shaped like candelabra, and named accord- 

 ingly ; and on the higher hills fig-trees, wild olives, and 

 many others whose names I do not know, but some 

 of which were stately and beautiful. jMany of the 

 mimosas were in bloom, and covered with sweet- 

 sinelling yellow blossoms. There were many flowers. 

 On the dry plains there were bushes of the colour and 

 size of our own sagebrush, covered with flowers like 

 morning glories. There were also wild sweet peas, on 

 which the ostriches fed, as they did on another plant 

 with a lilac flower of a faint heliotrope fragrance. 

 Among the hills there were masses of singularly 

 fragi-ant flowers like pink jessamines, growing on 

 bushes sometimes fifteen feet high or over. There 

 were white flowers that smelt like narcissus, blue 

 flowers, red lilies, orange tiger-lilies, and many others 

 of many kinds and colours, while here and there in the 

 pools of the rare rivers grew the sweet-scented purple 

 lotus- lily. 



There was an infinite variety of birds, small and large, 



