162 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



and the rivers were up. We had to swim our 

 horses within a half-mile of Juja, and got pretty 

 wet. Shortly after crossing the Athi, however, 

 five miles on, we emerged on the dry, drained 

 slopes from the hills. Here the grass was long, 

 and the ticks plentiful. Our horses' legs and 

 chests were black with them ; and when we 

 dismounted for lunch we ourselves were almost 

 immediately alive with the pests. In this very 

 high grass the game was rather scarce, but after 

 we had climbed by insensible grades to the 

 shorter growth we began to see many hartebeeste, 

 zebra, and gazelles, and a few of the wildebeeste, 

 or brindled gnus. Travel over these great plains 

 and through these leisurely low hills is a good deal 

 like coastwise sailing the same apparently un- 

 attainable landmarks which, nevertheless, are at 

 last passed and left astern by the same sure but 

 insensible progress. Thus we drew up on appar- 

 ently continuous hills, found wide gaps between 

 them, crossed them, and turned to the left along 

 the other side of the promontory. About five 

 o'clock we came to the Hills'. 



The ostrich farm is situated on the very top of 

 a conical rise that sticks up like an island close 

 inshore to the semicircle of mountains in which 

 end the vast plains of Kapiti. Thus the Hills have 



