226 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



to look higher. There, above the sky of the 

 horizon, apparently suspended in mid-air half- 

 way to the zenith, hung like delicate bubbles 

 the double snow-cloud peaks of Kilimanjaro. 

 Between them and the earth we could appar- 

 ently see clear sky. It was in reality, of course, 

 the blue-heat haze that rarely leaves these torrid 

 plains. I have seen many mountains in all 

 parts of the t world, but none as fantastically in- 

 substantial ; as wonderfully lofty ; as gracefully 

 able to yield, before clouds and storms and sun- 

 rise glows, all the space in infinity they could 

 possibly use, and yet to tower above them serene 

 in an upper space of its own. Nearly every 

 morning of our journey to come we enjoyed this 

 wonderful vision for an hour or so. Then the 

 mists closed in. The rest of the day showed us 

 a grayish sky along the western horizon, with 

 apparently nothing behind it. 



In the meantime we were tramping steadily 

 ahead over the desert ; threading the thorn 

 scrub, crossing the wide shallow grass-grown 

 swales ; spying about us for signs of game. At 

 the end of three or four miles we came across 

 some ostrich and four hartebeeste. This en- 

 couraged us to think we might find other game 

 soon, for the hartebeeste is a gregarious animal. 



