266 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



very early the next morning to get a good start 

 on our forced march. 



There is no use in spinning out a sad tale. 

 We passed what we thought must be our land- 

 mark hill just eleven times. The map showed 

 only one butte ; as a matter of fact there were 

 dozens. At each disappointment we had to 

 reconstruct our theories. It is the nature of man 

 to do this hopefully Tsavo Station must be just 

 around the next bend. We marched six hours 

 without pause ; then began to save ourselves a 

 little. By all the gods of logical reasoning we 

 proved Tsavo just beyond a certain fringe of 

 woods. When we arrived we found that there 

 the river broke through a range of hills by way 

 of a deep gorge. It was a change from the 

 everlasting scrub, with its tumbling waters, its 

 awful cliffs, its luxuriant tropical growths ; but 

 it was so much the more difficult to make our 

 way through. Beyond the gorge we found any 

 amount of hills, kopjes, buttes, sugar loaves, etc., 

 each isolated from its fellows, each perfectly 

 competent to serve as the map's single landmark. 



We should have camped, but we were very 

 anxious to catch that train ; and we were con- 

 vinced that now, after all that work, Tsavo 

 could not be far away. It would be ridiculous 



